Izayah Cummings (84) made his first touchdown catch against Chattanooga. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Remember the hope for Izayah Cummings when Kentucky decided to move him from receiver to tight end after a season-ending injury to tight end Keaton Upshaw? Cummings lacked the bulk of Upshaw or other UK tight ends but also had the speed and hands to make him a threat to stretch the field. Or at least that was the hope.
Saturday he showed that hope was reality with a badly needed 31-yard touchdown catch in UK’s 28-23 win over Chattanooga.
“It was nice to see that. I mean, he’s athletic. We had the right coverage there and had the right opportunity,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said. “Will (Levis) did a nice job of going through his progressions and hitting him there.”
Levis thought he underthrew the pass and said it was a play Kentucky had “struggled” with all week in practice before converting it into a badly needed score Saturday.
“That was the cleanest we repped it by far in the game. It was good to get the rep when we needed it. We could have gotten that a little earlier, but I had the time, got it out, he made the catch and it was a big play for us,” Levis said.
Kentucky could use more of that as it gets set to start a rugged stretch of SEC games. The Cats are at South Carolina this week and then host Florida and LSU before going to Georgia.
Cummings’ emergence could give UK a needed third option to go with receivers Wan’Dale Robinson and Josh Ali.
“He’s great. Obviously making that change in this offseason from wide receiver to tight end. That’s a transition that was hard for anybody to make, any transition, position change, and he embraced it,” Levis said.
“He has taken the role on and has known that he was going to be using this offense and has just prepared his butt off and prepared himself for moments like that. I mean, it was really cool to see him and I’m glad I was a part of that moment for him.”
