Insider Notes: How UK got to this point

The transfer portal has been open for more than 10 days. In that time Kentucky has been one of the most active programs recruiting the portal.

Kentucky has done so much work that we will have to spend the rest of the offseason introducing players, breaking down histories, and trying to figure out how everything will fit together when games start.

All along the way at Cats Illustrated and now at KSR+ we have been tracking the latest developments and we continue with that today. Here are the latest news items on Kentucky football along with what we’ve learned along the way.

What we’ve learned about pieces from last year’s roster

Kentucky was genuinely interested in bringing Cutter Boley back. If he had come back you could have envisioned a serious competition for the starting job between Boley and Kenny Minchey. As it stands Kentucky brought in its likely QB1 and Marshall transfer JacQai Long is harder to forecast in terms of where he will slot in the room’s depth chart.

Sources have said that Kentucky made a commitment to second-year quarterback Brennen Ward. He is regarded as someone who could be an interesting player down the road and is someone Kentucky was eager to keep around. While it was always likely that Stone Saunders would transfer – both those in Saunders’ camp and those at Kentucky understood this – in hindsight keeping Ward seems like it was more of a priority than we realized.

One source told Cats Illustrated that a ballpark figure to get Mi’Quise Humphrey-Grace back for another year was $1.5 million. He had a very successful season transferring over from South Dakota and could be an All-SEC candidate in his second and final year in the conference. That’s a high price tag but if true it would reflect how he’s viewed internally and also how the room’s needs were assessed.

Kentucky would have liked to see wide receiver Cameron Miller come back for another year but the price tag was too high based on the assessment of how he would fit into things. It seems like the previous staff might have been pretty generous with NIL in the wide receiver room after Barion Brown and Dane Key departed the program last year.

Hardley Gilmore is someone who could have stuck around. At one point it looked like he was bound for Louisville. Because of a spotty track record that everyone already knows about there were some administrative hiccups and hurdles that prevented him from enrolling at Louisville. He was able to get into Baylor, though, and those in Waco believe he can be a serious player for them right away.

There was some talk that it would have taken $3 million for Tennessee to keep Lance Heard, who probably would have moved over to right tackle. Our understanding is that Kentucky probably only had to pay closer to $2 million to bring him in and keep him at left tackle.

More on incoming portal pieces and targets

Kentucky did not land wide receiver Deandre Moore Jr. from Texas. He’s bound for Colorado even though his good friend, running back C.J. Baxter, is Lexington-bound. But sources said Kentucky was very invested. One number we heard regarding Colorado’s offer was $1.8 million. One source said Kentucky also could have been around $2 million but we don’t know the final details of where each team was at the end. That seems like a lot of money for a wide receiver from the portal. Typically you’re talking about quarterbacks and tackles for that kind of money but there are some programs like Kentucky where there is a definite WR1 need.

The Wildcats did land Louisville receiver transfer Brock Coffman today. He has four years of eligibility remaining. We’ve done some digging and Coffman is an interesting player long-term for Kentucky. He does not change the depth chart or the facts on the ground in Year 1 for Will Stein but he wasn’t extra fat to be trimmed at Louisville.

Initially the Cardinals wanted to add Coffman as a preferred walk-on. There was some concern that Kentucky or other schools could offer a scholarship so Louisville put him on scholarship and apparently he has some talent to work with. He isn’t the fastest wide receiver but has potential as a route runner and catching the ball.

Our understanding was that Kentucky could take anywhere between two and four more receivers going into today. The bigger number was possible if the top tier targets went elsewhere. With Moore going to Colorado and Malcolm Simmons going to Texas Tech we’re waiting to see the rest of the strategy at receiver. The fact that Kentucky accepted a commitment from Coffman suggests they could spray the board and take several lesser-established receivers and rely on depth and competition.

Syracuse wide receiver Darrell Gill is also someone Kentucky has apparently had a pretty significant offer out for. We don’t have the details on that but at last check a source thought he was likely to end up somewhere else. These situations are all in flux and late changes would only speak to negotiation breakthroughs or other dominoes falling.