Freshman offensive lineman Kiyaunta Goodwin living up to his high ranking

Kiyaunta Goodwin (Photo by UK Athletics)

Despite his high national ranking, I know there were some who wondered if Kiyaunta Goodwin was really as good as he was rated.

The 6-8, 350-pound Goodwin was a five-star recruit who was ranked as the No. 2 offensive tackle and No. 13 overall player in the 2022 recruiting class by 247Sports and the No. 30 player nationally based on ranking averages of numerous recruiting services.

Goodwin had over 60 scholarship offers and picked UK over Alabama, Clemson, Michigan State and Ohio State to give coach Mark Stoops one of the highest ranked recruits in UK football history.

Goodwin indicated one reason he picked UK was the chance to play early — and offensive line coach Zach Yenser Tuesday made that sound like it could be possible. He’s been mainly with the second team offensive line working at left tackle.

“Kiyaunta is doing really, really well for us,” Yenser said. “Heck, the guy should still be in high school right now. He’s a big son of a gun now. But he’s doing well.

“His head is spinning a little bit with some of the protections, but we expect that being a young guy. But I’ll tell you what, when he knows what he’s doing and he’s right about 95 percent of the time now and when he knows what he’s doing, he’s very, very talented.”

Yenser said one learning block is the snap count where he’s gone from a simple high school snap count to UK where there can be four or five snap counts he has to know.

“Just the speed of the game. Every day that he steps on the field, he’s picking up a little bit more and it’s really encouraging,” Yenser said.

Earlier this spring linebacker J.J. Weaver praised Goodwin’s work ethic and determination to drop weight.

“He works with (strength) coach Ed (Corey Edmond) every day. He beats me in the gym and I’m always the first one in the gym, so he’s a dog. He’s working. He’s losing all that weight he needs to do, so I’m proud of him for doing that for sure,” Weaver said.