Experts Agree: Don't Sleep on Kentucky, Devin Leary and Historic Wide Receiver Group

“Don’t sleep on Kentucky” has become a warning often used during the dog days of summer throughout the Mark Stoops era. High expectations have not always been kind to the Cats. They’re at their best lurking away from the bright lights with a heavy chip on their shoulder. History can repeat itself in 2023, albeit in a slightly different manner.

Cole Cubelic has closely followed Kentucky’s climb up the SEC ladder as a sideline analyst for the SEC Network. The former Auburn center joined Late Kick with Josh Pate and was asked which college football teams are sleepers this offseason. Before mentioning Texas A&M or Washington, he talked about the Kentucky Wildcats.

“I think Kentucky’s a sleeper team right now,” Cubelic told Pate.

“I don’t think SEC fans have any idea of how good of a quarterback Devin Leary is. He’s gotta be upright. Availability has gotta be his best ability, and that has not been his best ability throughout the course of his career. If he’s in the game, Josh, Kentucky has the best receiver group they’ve had in the history of Kentucky football right now. There have been other great individual receivers, maybe one or two. They have three, maybe four that are as good or better than they’ve ever had.”

Not only are people sleeping on the Cats’ new quarterback, he has the greatest pass-catching talent ever assembled at the university? Got it.

That all sounds great, however, Mark Stoops did not create 10-win seasons at Kentucky by airing it out. For Kentucky to achieve its goals in 2023, the process will look much different.

“That blueprint that Coach Stoops has, that foundation, it’s not going away. They’re not changing how they build houses. They’re just sort of moving around the floor-plan of the house,” added Cubelic.

“I think they can be more explosive than they’ve been in a long time by still maintaining some of that physicality, playing some ground and pound, opening up play-action and Devin Leary can be great with those things. That’s one in the SEC I don’t think people are looking at saying, ‘Oh wow, I think they can get to double-digit wins or maybe past that.'”

Kentucky QB Devin Leary is one of the SEC’s Best

Athlon Sports beat everyone to the punch as the first publication to share preseason all-conference teams. Devin Leary did not make the cut, outside of a group that includes Arkansas’ KJ Jefferson, LSU’s Jayden Daniels and Mississippi State’s Will Rogers. Josh Pate believes many have just forgotten about Leary.

“I don’t think people are fully aware. If you polled 100% of SEC fandom, there’s a large chunk of SEC fandom that does not know Devin Leary is at Kentucky right now and they certainly don’t know that they brought in the running back from NC State too,” Pate said last week.

The CBS Sports analyst watched Devin Leary throw for 35 touchdowns and only five interceptions in 2021 at NC State, yet he was never wowed by the quarterback from New Jersey. In an appearance on 11 Personnel, Pate shared how his opinion of Leary changed when he watched him throw the football in-person last summer.

“About this time last year I went out to Elite 11 and Leary was working the event. Caleb Williams was there, Bryce Young was there, CJ Stroud was there, so a lot of the college guys were there. I stood there and watched Leary throw, like standing right next to him, talking to him, watching him throw for like 10 minutes. Dude, his arm talent stood out so much and it just never jumped off the screen to me watching him at NC State.”

In order for it to stand out this fall, it all goes back to this offseason’s million-dollar question: Can the Kentucky offensive line protect its quarterback?

“Can he use the tools in that wide receiver room? Will that offensive line allow him do to that? You’ve got Liam Coen coming back in there. If he’s upright and given time to operate, yes, that’s a top four quarterback in the SEC,” Pate said.

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