What Kentucky Football Looks For in Transfer Portal Prospects

The transfer portal has been kind to the Kentucky football program. Four incoming transfers have heard their names called in the NFL Draft over the last three seasons, with two on each side of the ball.

Devin Leary was recruited to Lexington to replace second round selection Will Levis. Leary is one of 13 scholarship newcomers from the transfer portal this offseason. Not every incoming transfer is a former all-conference quarterback. When it’s not an obvious addition, the Kentucky coaching staff has certain criteria they are searching for with new players.

“Number one, they gotta fit what we are,” UK defensive coordinator Brad White recently told KSR. “Take out the stats, take out what they’ve put on tape, when you dig into the character aspect, are they wired the way our defense and our team is wired? Do you like to work? Are you unselfish?

“That’s a big piece of why we’ve had so much success here. We’re really lucky to have a locker room and a unit that cares about each other and they want success for the unit, and if personal success comes, that’s great. That will come if the unit’s having success.”

Two Types of Transfer Portal Players

The transfer portal can provide players to fill a role immediately. In the spring of 2021 Kentucky’s linebacker room was thin. Jamin Davis surprisingly soared up NFL draft boards. Then D’Eryk Jackson suffered a torn Achilles in spring practice. Desperate for an inside linebacker, Jacquez Jones transferred from Ole Miss and became the Wildcats’ leading tackler. Kentucky does not need every transfer portal player to become a day one starter in Lexington.

“We’ve gotten to a place right now where we go into the transfer portal, specifically on defense, a lot of it is you look from a developmental standpoint,” White said. “If you lost a sophomore in the portal, we’re trying to fill that spot. Some teams are all trying to get one and dones, just get em in and out. If you had a specific need, you can always do that, like we had with Keidron (Smith) last year.

“But for the most part, we’re looking for guys that will settle in here and grow and develop so that they have multiple years to understand what we’re all about. We’ve had that. Zion (Childress) is like that. You forget Zion still has two more years. Jordan Robinson, he played as a true freshman at Livingstone, was able to redshirt last year, so we still have him for three more years as physically developed as he is. JQ (Hardaway) is the same way and I can go down through all the guys we’ve gotten, but they all have years so that they can settle into the system.”

Brad White uses a pro-style system at Kentucky. There are a few spots where one can be a “plug and play” guy, but that’s rare. In order to excel at your specific position, you need to know how the others around you operate.

Zion Childress admitted last fall it took him time to understand all of the moving parts. It finally clicked in the last month of the season, tallying 22 tackles, two pass deflections and a sack over the final four games. Expected to be a premier playmaker for the Kentucky defense in 2023, Childress is the type of developmental prospect Brad White looks for in the portal.

“Our defense isn’t just two defenses,” said White. “It’s not something you just pick up and by day two you know it all. You’ve gotta learn it and there’s some pieces to it. But you’re also ready for the next level because you’ve played in a defense that has multiple fronts, multiple looks, multiple coverages, checks within a call and that’s what you’re going to get in the next level.”

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