Courtland Ford with UK players and coaches Saturday night in Lexington. (Twitter Photo)
Coming out of spring practice Kentucky coach Mark Stoops, offensive coordinator Liam Coen and offensive line coach Zach Yenser all admitted it would be a help if the Cats could find a potential starting right tackle in the transfer portal.
Saturday night, Kentucky apparently got its man — and he’s a BIG man.
Southern Cal offensive tackle Courtland Ford played in 20 games the last three seasons at USC. The 6-6, 310-pound Ford mainly played left tackle but the former three-star recruit obviously has convinced UK coaches he has the versatility to play the right tackle spot.
He started one game at left guard in 2020 as a true freshman and made eight starts at left tackle in 2021. Last season he played in 10 games with three starts at left tackle.
Pro Football Focus had him playing 194 snaps last season with a grade of 63.6.
The Texas native took official visits to Purdue, SMU and Minnesota before picking USC. He was rated the nation’s No. 52 offensive tackle and had scholarship offers from Georgia, Alabama, Oregon, Florida State and LSU.
Ford entered the transfer portal April 16 after USC added Florida offensive tackle Michael Tarquin. Ford will have two years of eligibility remaining.
Kentucky freshman tight end Josh Kattus tweeted Saturday night that there was a “new addition” on the football team and then posted a picture of Ford with UK coaches, including recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow, and players.
If Ford is able to win the starting right tackle job, Kentucky could go into the season with a completely different offensive from 2022. Northern Illinois transfer Marques Cox seems to have the left tackle job won and that will allow last year’s starting left tackle, Kenneth Horsey, to move back to guard where he played in 2021.
Sophomore Jager Burton is moving from guard where he started last year to center and that will allow Eli Cox to move back from center where he played last season to guard where he started in 2021.
2 Responses
The Cats are going to have the talent to do something Big next year. Now they just have to go out and do it. It could put Ky in a great position for the future. Go Cats!!!
It sounds like the issues we had with the O line are being addressed. Having Coen back as OC is already paying for itself. It looks like the offense will be in good shape for next year.