Morning-After Fan Day Notes and Leftovers

DrewFranklinKSR

By now you’ve read all about Kentucky Football’s open practice at Fan Day and seen the videos and the photos. (If not, click those links to see all that you’ve missed.)

Here on the site, Nick Roush already summed up the defense’s day, a win for that side of the ball over Will Levis’ new offense. Adam Luckett wrote about those struggles. Me, I was there too and today I’ve got some leftovers, notes, and thoughts to add to those Fan Day conversations.

Here are my morning-after quick-hitters to put a bow on Saturday’s events at the Kentucky Football practice fields.

— First starters, let’s talk about the unique environment. This year, the team invited fans through the private gates and onto the practice fields for Fan Day, as opposed to the traditional Kroger Field venue across the parking lot. Of course, the fields were roped off so kids wouldn’t get trampled (and to keep some of you crazies from taking selfies during a tackling drill) but fans got as close as they will ever get to live-action football from the Wildcats. For football purposes, I think the scenery change gave a new and exclusive perspective to how the team operates around this time of year. Some fans may have complaints about no autograph lines or having to stand the whole time, but I think most will agree it was neat to be behind closed doors for an afternoon.

Many fans even went too far behind closed doors when the team moved inside for the end of practice. With rain hitting the outdoor practice, fans were asked to head on home as Fan Day was cut 15 minutes short, but when the team moved inside, someone forgot to close the big barn door on the opposite end of the Nutter Field House and fans swarmed in out of the rain and onto the indoor track to surround the last practice session. No one stopped them. Some of the players even welcomed the audience inside.

Again, it was a special day to see things you don’t normally get to see.

— Another thing we saw that we don’t normally see was Will Levis having a really bad day. Collectively, UK’s quarterbacks threw, by my unofficial count, at least five INTs to the defense, and it could’ve been more with all of the active hands and batted passes. Afterward, Jacquez Jones even joked that he and his fellow linebackers need to hit the jugs machine to work on their hands, but overall that group shined on the day. It helps being the most veteran position group on the team and knowing most of the plays before they happen.

As for Levis, his bad decision-making was deflating to the crowd, but he said afterward it’s good to experience adversity every once in a while, and he took some chances he wouldn’t normally take to see how his brand-new wide receivers can make plays. There was no deflection from his errors, but Levis handled it all well in his post-practice remarks and was pissed off by his performance in front of the fans. His reaction was good to see even when his performance was not.

Remember, it was Levis’ first-ever practice with his wide receivers in pads playing against a defense with some veterans who played for Bill Curry. Don’t overreact.

— The defense may have outplayed the offense for an afternoon but the new offense showed some flashes of exciting football. One of the MVPs was rookie wide receiver Barion Brown, a player who already looks ready to make plays as a true freshman. Brown caught a deep ball from Levis that we don’t see too often ’round here and, as a top-10 wide receiver nationally, he carries a swagger that Kentucky’s wide receiver room has been missing. Dane Key, too. They are immediate impacts in the new receiver room that Stoops called his most talented he’s had at Kentucky to date.

“I feel this is definitely the most talented group we’ve had as a whole,” Stoops said of his wide receivers after practice. “You know, you’ve seen some really talented individual players here, but as a group, we’ve never had this kind of depth with the talent that we have, and now they have a long way to go. But I feel really good about that group. You asked me about the room, I feel very good.”

— More on that defense: I don’t know how Stoops is going to play all of his linebackers the snaps they deserve, which is a great problem to have. Kentucky seems to be absolutely loaded at linebacker with super-seniors DeAndre Square and Jacquez Jones captaining the crew, rising stars in JJ Weaver, Trevin Wallace and D’Eryk Jackson, who had two INTs on the day, plus a veteran playmaker in Jordan Wright outside and more.

Heck, even true freshman Tyreese Fearby looked good and joined the turnover fun.

If the secondary can find some consistency and maybe a new star in Carrington Valentine (he looked GREAT), the defense might be nasty.

— Seriously, get excited about Carrington Valentine. Andru Phillips and Ole Miss transfer Keidron Smith looked good at corner, too. Phillips had the edge in that battle with two picks in one of the better individual performances of the entire day.

— Other players who deserve a brief mention:

Deone Walker – Humans that big shouldn’t move that fast, especially not true freshmen.
Ramon Jefferson – The transfer RB from Sam Houston State got some time with the ones; Levis called him a “bowling ball” and “Mighty Mouse” and compared him to former NFL All-Pro Doug Martin.
Chris Rodriguez – Not only was he a full participant, but he also made a 25-yard catch with one hand on a wheel route–see it here.
Tayvion Robinson – It appears he is Kentucky’s punt returner.
Josh Kattus – The tight end room has four to five players with NFL potential, according to Rich Scangarello, and true freshman Josh Kattus may have been the star at that spot in his first-ever full-padded practice at Kentucky.

— Among the special guests in the crowd, one VIP was former Kentucky head coach Guy Morriss in attendance to check on his old team. Morriss was greeted with a warm reception of hugs from old friends and colleagues when he entered the facility and he spent a few minutes with Mark Stoops during the team’s practice.

Morriss was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016.