Linebacker Jared Casey and running back Travis Tisdale in transfer portal

Travis Tisdale (UK Athletics Photo)

With the recruiting class Kentucky expects to bring in and the success coach Mark Stoops and his staff have had with the transfer portal, it’s no surprise that Kentucky football has already had three players put their name in the transfer portal — and expect more to do the same in the next few weeks.

Stoops addressed that possibility on his weekly radio show Monday night.

“Kids don’t want to be buried on the depth chart,” Stoops said.

So far Kentucky has had four players opt to put their name into the transfer portal:

— Running back Travis Tisdale.

— Linebacker Jared Casey.

— Quarterback Nik Scalzo.

— Offensive lineman Jake Pope.

The 6-3, 220-pound Casey was a four-star recruit out of Ballard High School in Louisville and a top 350 player nationally. He committed to Oregon before flipping to UK over Wisconsin, Louisville, Purdue, Syracuse, Cincinnati, and others. He had 20 tackles and two tackles for loss as a redshirt freshman in 2020 but had just eight tackles and one quarterback hit in 12 games this year.

Tisdale has had only 12 carries for 82 yards and one touchdown in three seasons at UK. He has also been a special teams player. Like Casey, he was a four-star player with offers from Cincinnati, Iowa State, LSU, Minnesota, Nebraska, Mississippi, Penn State, West Virginia, and others.

Pope and Scalzo were both three-star recruits out of Ft. Lauderdale. Pope has not played in three seasons and Scalzo’s career was derailed by knee injuries. He did play briefly against New Mexico State this year.

All four players obviously want to go where they can play more — and no one can blame them for that.

Kentucky has now lost 10 players from the 2019 recruiting class —Casey, Tisdale, Pope, Scalzo, MJ Devonshire, Shawnkel Knight-Goff, Nikolas Ogenovic, Cavon Butler, Tra Wilkins, and Amani Gilmore.

So who is left from the 2019 class? JJ Weaver, Moses Douglass, KD McDaniel, Jalen Geiger, DeMarcus Harris, Eli Cox, Taj Dodson, Isaiah Gibson, Tae Tae Cummings, Marquez Bembry, and Quandre Mosely are left from the 21-player signing class.