Tim Couch offers advice to Brock Vandagriff: "Never lose your self confidence."

Tim Couch knows a thing or two about playing quarterback at the highest level both in the SEC and in the NFL. A 2024 College Football Hall of Fame selection and former No. 1 overall draft pick, the former Kentucky star set the conference record for single-season passing yards, among countless other accolades in college. And he was a heck of a pro before injuries derailed his career in Cleveland.

The consensus First Team All-American and SEC Player of the Year will be honored at Kentucky’s matchup vs. No. 1 Georgia, celebrating his upcoming induction into the Hall of Fame. While he’ll be accepting his HOF plaque set to be on permanent display in Lexington, he’ll also have his eye on Brock Vandagriff and his development as the program’s next leader under center.

It’s a massive matchup for QB1 coming off a letdown effort for the entire group against South Carolina, but also considering he’ll be taking on his former team. The stakes are quite high as Kentucky looks to figure out what it has in the former five-star recruit.

Couch feels for him after being that guy with the Browns to begin his NFL career.

“Certainly, I’ve been there. Being a part of an expansion team in the NFL my rookie year, you don’t have a lot of time to throw, you don’t have a lot of weapons. I didn’t have a lot of weapons around me in Cleveland at that point. It’s tough,” Couch said on Mark Stoops’ call-in radio show Monday evening. “In this game, you need all of your teammates making plays, you need the offensive line giving you time to throw. It all goes in, and obviously, the quarterback is gonna get a lot of the credit when the team wins and he’s going to get a lot of blame when they lose.”

In an all-systems failure for the Wildcats against the Gamecocks, it was Vandagriff receiving the bulk of criticism — unfair in Couch’s eyes.

“If you go back and you watch the film, it was a total team effort. It wasn’t just Brock’s fault,” he added. “I think the offensive line struggled a little bit at times and we didn’t make a lot of plays around him, so Brock’s not going to have a really great opportunity to go out and play well. I’ve certainly been there.”

Tom Leach asked Couch to share a few words of wisdom with Vandagriff as he prepares for a bounce-back effort against some familiar faces in the Bulldogs. His advice? Trust his abilities because he’s a starting quarterback in the SEC for a reason. Don’t lose the faith because one game went sideways.

“If I had to give him any advice, it would just be to never lose your self confidence. Because he knows he’s a good football player, he wouldn’t be in this position if he wasn’t,” Couch said. “You’ve just got to go back to work. That’s the only thing you can do in this game. I played in this conference, and if you don’t play your best game, and another team comes and plays a great game, they’re going to beat you to death.

“That’s what happened to us. We walked into a buzzsaw there not playing our best game, but the season isn’t one game. It’s a long season ahead. I would just encourage him to continue to work hard and encourage the guys and be a team leader.”