Two Kentucky Wildcats on Outland Trophy Watch List

The Outland Trophy is one of the most prestigious awards in all of college football. Only the Heisman and Maxwell have been around longer. Ahead of the 2024 season, the 79th year the honor has been given, two Kentucky Wildcats are under consideration for the Outland Trophy.

The Outland Trophy is a bit unusual in that it’s given to the top lineman in college football. It doesn’t matter if they play offense or defense, creating an atypical list of candidates. There are 75 players on this year’s preseason watch list and two are from the University of Kentucky, Deone Walker and Eli Cox.

Cox was one of the lowest-ranked players in Kentucky’s 2019 recruiting class, but JJ Weaver is his only peer with comparable production. A product of West Jessamine High School in Nicholasville, Ky., Cox stepped into a starting role at right guard in the fall of 2021. He earned Midseason All-American honors before suffering a season-ending injury. The following year he moved to center and started in all 13 games. He moved back to right guard for the first three games of the ’23 season before switching back to center.

Cox will begin the 2024 campaign with 35 consecutive starts. He’ll likely hold team captain honors for the second straight season.

Even though he’s been around a long time, it’s not getting any easier blocking Deone Walker. The athletic freak of nature is one of the most dynamic interior defensive linemen to ever play at Kentucky. Fresh off a productive fall in which he had 7.5 sacks, 8 QB hurries, and 12.5 tackles for loss, Walker is poised to be one of the most disruptive defenders in all of college football this fall.

Kentucky’s Only Outland Trophy Winner

Dr. John Outland was a college football fan who believed the big uglies did not get enough recognition for their contributions to the game of football. That sentiment applies to Bob Gain, the Kentucky tackle who won the Outland Trophy in 1950.

A two-way player for Bear Bryant, Gain paved the way for the Wildcats’ unprecedented success in 1950, claiming the school’s first-ever SEC title en route to an upset of undefeated Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl. Mr. Gain took great pride in keeping Hall of Fame QB Babe Parilli clean in the pocket.

“The girls always ‘ohed and ahd’ at him in his clean, white uniform,” Mr. Gain told me back in 2014.  “The only time it ever got dirty was because he slipped. Even then, all he got was a little grass stain on his knee.”

In addition to playing in the trenches, Gain was a bit of s special teams savant. He kicked field goals and extra points, and also blocked a few kicks to set up scores for the Cats. Following his days in Lexington, he had the pleasure of opening running lanes for Jim Brown. Gain won three NFL Championships for the Cleveland Browns. His final football game was a 27-0 NFL Championship Game victory with former Kentucky head coach Blanton Collier leading the Browns. They have not won a championship since Gain was on the field for that 1964 season.

When Tim Couch is inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame this fall, he’ll join Gain as one of only eight former Kentucky Wildcats in the esteemed company.