Brock Drive had 12 tackles during Boyle County’s state championship season in 2021. (Photo by Twitter)
Boyle County High School certainly has a lot of connections to the University of Kentucky football but those connections are increasing even more now.
Walk-on freshman receiver Cole Lanter was on Boyle’s 2020 and 2021 state championship teams. So was Jackson Smith, an incoming freshman kicker who is part of UK’s 2022 recruiting class. So was defensive lineman Tommy Ziesmer, a senior who just verbally committed to UK.
Three-star receiver Dakota Patterson just transferred to Boyle from Corbin for his senior season and has 10 Division I offers, including UK.
But now freshmen defensive lineman Block Driver also has a Kentucky offer to go with the one he also got from Eastern Kentucky University last week.
“It just has been exciting but it cannot keep my focus from being on getting better,” said Driver.
Boyle coach Justin Haddix got Driver out of class to tell him Kentucky had offered him a scholarship even though he’s not visited the Kentucky campus.
“I really didn’t even know they were interested in me,” Driver said. “I guess they saw film of me.”
He played in 11 games during Boyle County’s Class 4A state championship season in 2021 and had four solo tackles, one tackle for loss and eight assisted tackles.
The 6-3, 210-pound defensive lineman knows it is unusual for a freshman to get significant playing time at Boyle, especially during a state championship season when he is the backup to Ziesmer.
“I have learned a lot from Tommy. He’s really a good player,” Driver said.
Driver’s father, Randy, was an all-state defensive back at Glasgow High School who lost to Boyle in both the 2000 and 2001 state title game. He went on to play at the University of Kentucky and his son said he was “excited” about his son getting a Kentucky offer.
“My dad has been a very big help. He teaches me what to do in certain positions and what to do in general,” the Boyle freshman said. “In semi pro ball, he actually played defensive line.”
Brock Driver is a gifted athlete, also. He can dunk a basketball — “It’s not that hard.” He played on the freshman basketball team last season but did practice with the varsity.”
He’s also been lifting weights twice daily and says it is making a “big” difference already. He recently had a 225-pound power clean.
“Everyone has been congratulating me but also telling me I am not done yet,” Driver said. “There is a lot of improvement still to come for me. A Kentucky offer is great.”
