Josh Kattus talks football, family, and his shoe drive on Finebaum

It may be Kentucky’s bye week, but Josh Kattus is still making the media rounds. On Monday, the senior tight end helped fill in for Mark Stoops on his call-in show, and yesterday, he made an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show.

During the eight-minute chat with Paul, Kattus talked about his plans for the bye week, his family, the tight end position, and his charity work. Kattus was named to the 2025 Allstate Good Works Team on Tuesday and is also a semifinalist for the Wuerffel Award, which is presented to the FBS player who best combines exemplary community service with leadership achievement on and off the field. Tonight, he’s hosting a shoe drive for Camp Horsin’ Around at Drake’s on Tates Creek Road in Lexington from 6-8 p.m.

“It’s something I’ve prided myself on ever since I was a kid, and something my parents have instilled in me is always doing what you can to give back to the community,” Kattus said of volunteering. “We have a four-year window to do so, and so it’s kind of the stuff I like to do.”

When it comes to his work on the field, Kattus is in the midst of what could be his best season yet, emerging as one of Cutter Boley’s favorite targets. He leads Kentucky in catches (eight) and receiving yards (112), pulling in his first touchdown of the season vs. Eastern Michigan. He credits his drive to his incredibly competitive family. His younger brother Justin is also a tight end at Kentucky, a redshirt freshman, and his other brother Tucker is a freshman offensive lineman at Clemson. Kattus’ dad, Eric, was a tight end at Michigan from 1982-85 and played in the NFL for seven years, six with the Cincinnati Bengals.

“Extremely, extremely competitive,” Kattus said of his family. “Whether we were playing basketball, wrestling, whatever it may be, we were always extremely competitive. But I think that’s ultimately what pushed us to get where we are today. And having a dad who played football, back with a great coach, Bo Schembechler, with Michigan, and playing in the NFL and doing all the stuff that I have hopes of doing, it’s really been awesome having a mentor like that. And, I’m giving all credit to my dad and my brothers and stuff, but my mom is actually the most competitive out of all of us.”

Kattus is using the bye week to go watch his younger brother Tucker play this weekend in Clemson. The Tigers host Syracuse Saturday afternoon. When he’s not watching football, he’ll be preparing for next Saturday’s game at South Carolina.

“For a guy like me who’s going into my senior year, [the bye week] is a good opportunity to get my body a little bit of rest and also some younger guys a little bit more reps that maybe haven’t gotten much throughout the start of the season. But overall it’s a good chance to look at how the first three games have gone, and again, what we really need to clean up on, whether that’s the operation communication at the line of scrimmage or stuff like that.”

It’s hard to find a better guy — or ass kicker — than Kattus, so if you get a chance, stop by his shoe drive tonight at Drake’s to support Camp Horsin’ Around.

.@JKattus joined The @finebaum Show yesterday. Check out what he had to say about the start of the season, heading into the bye week, and what it means to him being on the @Allstate @WeAreAFCA Good Works Team. pic.twitter.com/sYu0zT7DAp

— Kentucky Football (@UKFootball) September 18, 2025