Four Kentucky Wildcats Earn Phil Steele Preseason All-SEC Honors

It’s not truly college football talking season until Phil Steele gets in the mix. The mustachioed maestro of the gridiron has been dropping a College Football Preview magazine for 29 straight years. Print publications have gone the way of the Dodo bird, but Phil Steele persists.

His predictions are not infallible. What makes it such a vital resource, especially for folks in the media world, is the amount of information his magazine provides. It’s a resource material that allows folks to quickly find how much a respective roster has lost or gained, which is not an easy task in the transfer portal era.

As magazines hit shelves, you will find quite a bit of turnover in the section about your University of Kentucky Wildcats. More than 50% of the roster has been flipped, with 29 portal departures and 24 arrivals.

Steele has four preseason all-conference teams for each league. Four Kentucky Wildcats made the cut.

Aidan Laros, Punter, Second Team,
Joshua Braun, Offensive Guard, Third Team
Alex Wollschlaeger, Offensive Tackle, Third Team
Alex Afari, Linebacker, Fourth Team   

Laros has one of the biggest legs in the SEC. Last year, he had punts of 61 yards and 66 yards. The South African averaged 45.4 yards per punt and downed 11 inside the 20-yard line.

Braun is no stranger to All-SEC honors. A two-year starter at Arkansas, he was a second-team All-SEC selection by the AP following the 2023 campaign. Of all the players on the roster, he’s the most likely candidate to receive postseason All-SEC honors.

Like Braun, Wollschlaeger received all-conference offers at his previous stop. He was a second-team All-MAC selection at Bowling Green in 2023 and a first-team selection last year. A three-year starter, the right tackle is bringing 2,341 career snaps to Kentucky

If Afari plays to an All-SEC level, it’s a great sign for the Kentucky defense. The Cincinnati native started his career at nickel before growing into a linebacker. He cut his teeth at the position last season, tallying ten tackles at Tennessee and against Louisville. Afari has 132 career tackles, 19.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, four quarterback hurries and two pass breakups in three seasons as a Wildcat. The Cats need Afari to blossom into an exceptional sideline-to-sideline tackler in the middle of the Kentucky defense.

Want more Kentucky football coverage? Join KSR Plus for the most comprehensive coverage of the Cats on the internet. With a KSR membership, you get access to bonus content and KSBoard, KSR’s message board, to chat with fellow Cats fans and get exclusive scoop.