Cole Lanter injury update: Mark Stoops reveals Kentucky WR sidelined for the season

Kentucky will open the 2025 season undermanned at the wide receiver position, as head coach Mark Stoops revealed on Saturday that a receiver will be out for the season following an injury suffered in their Fan Day practice earlier this month.

Senior wide receiver and Kentucky native Cole Lanter, who has seen the field in just five games over his career, will miss the 2025 season with an unspecified injury.

“Unfortunately Cole is gonna be down for the year,” Stoops said. “It’s really unfortunate and disappointing for him. He’s worked extremely hard and he is a great young man who has worked hard and done a lot for this program. I hate to see that for him.”

Lanter was back on the team this season as a walk-on after spending 2024 at Gardner-Webb. He was previously with the program from 2022-23 and was a stand-out at Boyle County High School (Danville, KY) from 2019-21.

Kentucky opens its season on Aug. 30 against Toledo

Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops discussed not overlooking the week one clash with Toledo for its week two home clash with No. 21 Ole Miss, marking a rematch from last season’s stunning win for the Wildcats in Oxford.

“We’ve got a big game in week one,” Stoops said. “I’m not just saying that and it’s not coach speak. I think you all could recognize that [Toledo] is a team that’s been picked to win the MAC and is a very, very mature football team and well-coached. So that’s going to be a big game and that’ll get us prepared. We have to be prepared for week one.”

Kentucky hasn’t lost a home game to a non-conference team since 2016 (Southern Miss), but Toledo is likely the best non-conference team the Wildcats have faced since then. Under head coach Jason Candle, the Rockets are 73-40 (since 2016) with two MAC titles and three bowl game victories.

ESPN tabbed this game as one of its 12 sneaky good games matching Power 4 teams against Group of 5 teams this season, putting the ‘Cats on upset alert. The two programs last met in 2019, where Kentucky held off Toledo 38-24 in its season opener. It was the one game that season that starting quarterback Terry Wilson started and finished, as he broke his collarbone in a week two game against Eastern Michigan.

As previously mentioned, Kentucky will then host Ole Miss the following week in a rematch from last season’s stunning Wildcat victory in Oxford. The ‘Cats haven’t started the regular season 2-0 with at least one SEC victory since it did it in back-to-back seasons in 2021 and 2022.