Kentucky Football Fall Camp Notes: Enjoying the Grind

Kentucky is inching closer to the start of the 2025 season. The Wildcats have reached the midway point of fall camp. It’s taxing, but the most vocal players are keeping a positive mindset during the sweltering hot summer days.

“I’m just trying to be where my feet are, take it day by day,” said cornerback Terhyon Nichols. “It’s always a blessing to just be here. It’s always a blessing to know that we have a game coming up on the 30th, and all the hard work we’ve put in during fall camp is going to pay off on the 30th.”

This is the fourth fall camp for Josh Kattus. It doesn’t get any easier, but he’s enjoying the grind.

“For me personally, I’m going into my final year, so I’m not taking any day for granted. Going out here and playing for Kentucky, I’m grateful for it. It’s something I do,” said the tight end. “As a leader on the team, I think it’s embracing a day one attitude. We’re going into our third week, but we still have to treat this like the first day. It’s a grind. There’s ups and downs throughout camp, but if we embrace that day one mentality that our coaches stress on us, I think we’re doing alright.”

Mark Stoops is giving his team a bit of a break. They’re hitting the reset button with a team-bonding activity on Wednesday to refresh before the final push toward Toledo.

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Embrace the Corrections

Not every day is going to be your best day. That’s just life. For many Kentucky football players, especially the ones that just arrived on campus, there are hard lessons learned on the practice field.

It can be easy to let those lessons get you down. Brad White wants his guys to still see the light at the end of the tunnel by focusing on the details. It’s okay to mess up, just don’t continually make the same mistakes.

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“You think you’re going to walk in and be a superstar, because that’s what you’ve always been. Then you find out, Wow, everybody on this field was a superstar in their hometown, maybe in their state. It takes time,” said the Kentucky defensive coordinator.

“You can show them that the process works if you just stay patient, keep taking the coaching, try to get better every day. We’re not going to be perfect the next day. We’re just trying to correct the mistakes that the coach made the day before. You’re probably going to make some new ones. Take the corrections there and just try not to repeat the same one over and over.”

Jason Patterson Emerges as RB3

There weren’t a lot of bright spots during the 2024 campaign, but Jamarion Wilcox provided a few flashes that impressed BBN. Even so, Kentucky wasn’t putting all of its chips into one basket. They brought in a pair of transfers, and another running back has accepted the challenge, Jason Patterson.

“In this day and age, when you have a kid like him and you take in two transfers, they got two ways to react to it. He’s been a guy that’s just put his head down, gone to work,” said offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan.

“I think in a lot of ways, those two other backs, we’ve seen them play a lot of football, and so he’s getting a ton of opportunities. He is one of those guys that has really stood out, who’s just been about his business, goes to work every single day, isn’t worried about anything other than improving his craft, and I think he’ll be rewarded.”

Jerod Smith Let’s Play Do the Talking

Jerod Smith was a decorated recruit in the 2024 class. The four-star talent starred at Corbin and played some meaningful snaps as a true freshman. He got a crash course in SEC football. It wasn’t just the speed of the game; it was the noise from the crowd. That noise can make it hard to talk trash. He’s not that type of player. He’s more focused on being at the right place at the right time, and showing how he’s improved over the last year.