He passed! Jayden Quaintance juggles rehab sessions to (finally) get his driver's license

It looks like Mark Pope‘s Brady Bunch Driving Challenge at Kroger Field finally paid off for Jayden Quaintance, even if it took longer than expected.

The Kentucky head coach shared the news last week that the star forward failed his first driver’s test — miserably, unfortunately — after backing “straight over a cone.” He was delayed by paperwork issues, then delayed again by failure in the funniest way imaginable.

“He was doing great until he backed straight over a cone and they failed him. … He backed dead straight, right over this cone,” Pope said. “I’m like, ‘How’d you know?’ He’s like, ‘It was just like this loud (noise) and the car jumped up and down. We have some work to do on him.”

A week later, Quaintance has big news to share, and it comes at the perfect time. With the Wildcats set to return to campus on Thursday before a team retreat this weekend, classes on August 25 and the start of workouts ahead of official fall practice in September, the 6-9 forward passed his test early this morning.

Jayden’s father, Haminn Quaintance, shared the proof with KSR shortly after his son became road official.

It’s been a whirlwind for Quaintance, who first took Pope’s Brady Bunch Driving Challenge on August 6 — right before the team returned home for break after eight weeks of summer workouts. After the first run of paperwork and testing delays, he traveled back and forth from Sarasota to Lexington to stick with his strict rehab schedule while recovering from ACL surgery. That included a few travel hiccups with flight delays and TSA giving him a hard time for not having proper identification after failing his first test, leading to one night stuck in a hotel in Cincinnati.

Then came his big moment on Thursday morning, putting his driver’s testing days behind him to get a license in his hands.

“I guess I ain’t driving his Maybach no more,” his father wrote on Instagram as Jayden exchanged his paperwork for the real thing.

Now, it’s time for the physical testing, Quaintance set to ramp up his recovery as he inches closer to his Kentucky debut.

“He’s in a really important three-week space for him right now. It’s the first time we get to hit strength training head-on,” Pope said last week. “He’s still not doing anything live-ish or even close to it, but we’re really going strength heavy, heavy, heavy over the next three weeks. We’ll see how these three weeks go.”

We got to see some of that training over the weekend:

What does that mean for his return to live action? Pope shared an updated timeline that suggests Quaintance won’t play the entire season, but the star portal addition is going to take the floor sooner rather than later.

“Listen, it’s really important that he gets a full recovery, so it’s gonna be a little while,” he said. “… I have every expectation that he will play this season. I don’t think he’s gonna play all the games this season, but we’ll see. He’s made great progress, and he’s kind of crossing off the benchmarks as he goes.”

Call it late November?

“Maybe-ish,” Pope continued. “This one’s hard.”

When that day comes, his head coach is excited to see the kid in action.

“As a 16-year-old, playing last year in the Big 12 — which was a good conference — he was one of the leading shot blockers in the country,” Pope said. “… This guy is a physical specimen like you’ve never seen before.”

They can celebrate together tonight with Quaintance (finally) behind the wheel.

Look out, Lexington!