Trent Dilfer says Ja'Mori Maclin was a Top 3 transfer WR, made one of his DBs quit mid-game

Ja’Mori Maclin has played just a little over one half of football at Kentucky, but he made an immediate impact in his debut with the Wildcats. He caught two passes for a game-high 66 yards, one being a 46-yard reception that later led to a touchdown. It ended up being the final scoring possession in UK’s 31-0 shutout win over Southern Miss before lightning canceled the game for good.

Maclin provides a deep passing threat for Kentucky that the staff just didn’t have last season. But he’s doing more than just make big plays on the field — he’s also going out of his way to make his teammates better. During his weekly SEC breakdown show on Monday, Cole Cubelic gave us the skinny on what’s happening behind the scenes with Maclin.

“Here’s the thing about this receiving core that you need to know for Kentucky,” Cubelic said on the Cube Show. “These transfers have come in and sort of changed things. So they lead the nation in drops last year and some of the super-talented kids aren’t necessarily getting it done the way that they need to. You go and you get Fred Farrier from UAB and Ja’Mori Maclin from Missouri.

“We had a couple of guys telling us that Ja’Mori Maclin will send texts to the younger receivers at like 11:30 or 12:30 at night of their practice film, critiquing them, trying to help them get better. (Brock) Vandagriff is telling us this. Vandagriff is like this dude’s costing himself sleep, watching practice film of other guys, taking the time to text them because of where he’s been and how long he’s been doing it, trying to help them get better.”

Maclin certainly has plenty of college experience. He began his career at Missouri for two seasons before spending the past two years at North Texas. His playing time at Missouri was limited, but he appeared in 26 games for North Texas, finishing with 1,455 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns. He was especially impressive in 2023 when he hauled in over 1,000 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns.

An opposing head coach witnessed Maclin terrorize his team’s secondary in person last season. Cubelic went on to tell a story about a conversation he had with UAB head coach Trent Dilfer. Maclin went for 118 receiving yards on nine catches against UAB to close out the 2023 season. He was so dominant that, according to Dilfer, he even made a UAB defender quit in the middle of the game.

“I call Trent Dilfer at UAB and I’m like tell me about this Fred Farrier kid. ‘Got a lot of juice, wanted to build the offense around him, had a little bit of an issue with drops so we had to go a different way, didn’t get the touches he probably deserved, he decided to move on. But good kid, works his rear end off, lot of talent.’ And he’s like, ‘Who else (does Kentucky) got?’

“And I mention Ja’Mori Maclin and Trent Dilfer says ‘We studied the top 20 receivers in the portal and Ja’Mori Maclin, we had him graded in the top three.’ He said this kid, ‘When we played against him at North Texas, he made one of our corners quit.’ I shit you not. Trent Dilfer is telling me this. ‘We have our corner come over and ask to come out of the game because he didn’t want to cover (Maclin) anymore.’ That’s what Ja’Mori Maclin did. He said he’s got legit speed, he’s physical, great hands, understands how to get separation, understands angles and leverage. He said ‘We wanted him. We wanted him bad.’”

Sorry, Trent. You can’t have him. But that’s some pretty interesting praise from a former opposing head coach. If you want to hear everything else Cubelic had to say about Kentucky’s season opener, start the video below at the 1:00:35 mark.