Former coach sees lot of similarities between UK commit Malachi Wood and former all-pro Larry Warford

Former Madison Central football coach Mark Scenters has known Kentucky offensive lineman commit Malachi Wood for a long time. He has one son a year older than Wood and one a year younger.

The 6-8, 300-pound Wood is the top in-state offensive line prospect in the 2023 recruiting class and Scenters thinks he has a bright future.

“My first memory of Malachi is just a short, little kid playing Little League baseball. Then one summer he grew three or four inches and just kept growing,” Scenters said. “He just exploded and he was always athletic. He’s just a great kid.”

Scenters coached Wood as a freshman and sophomore. He was also a Madison Central assistant coach when Larry Warford arrived as a sophomore transfer and coached the future UK offensive lineman for two seasons. Warford was an all-SEC player at Kentucky and made the Pro Bowl three times during a seven-year NFL career.

“Both of them have the commonality of those God-given size traits from the Lord’s blessing and good genetics,” Scenters said. “Larry was 6-3, maybe 6-4 but had long arms and that low center of gravity that made him very mobile.”

“He was a brawler in his early days at UK but kept working on his game and became very athletic for his size.”

“Malachi has that God-given height and length on a frame that can probably carry even more weight and it’s going to be neat to see how he develops in a strong collegiate conditioning program. He has all the tools you could ever want.”

Scenters says like Warford, Wood is a “hard worker dedicated to improving” and he’s anxious to see what lies ahead for Wood.

“Everything is based on how much work individually you put in and he will work. He’s already a talented, athletic  young man who moves well for any size but particularly well for a guy that big. The tools are there,” Scenters said.

“I believe in the kid just like I believed in Larry. I think Malachi certainly has the opportunity to one day be the kind of player that Larry was.”