Tight end Jordan Dingle is scheduled to start against Clemson today. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Junior tight end Jordan Dingle of Bowling Green played has played in 27 games with 13 starts and made 33 catches for 472 yards and three touchdowns. His receptions dropped from 20 in 2022 to 11 this season and he put his name into the transfer portal.
However, after being linked to Tennessee and a lucrative financial offer from the Vols, he took his name back out of the portal to stay at UK and is listed as a starting tight end for today’s game against Clemson in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl.
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops called that an “important” decision for UK football.
“Jordan is definitely a guy we want in the program. Here’s a young man who does everything right. He’s darn near perfect in his grades and he’s been just a great teammate. He loves it here,” Stoops said.
“He, I don’t think, wanted to leave. Just going to stop there before I get myself in trouble. You know what I mean? Because I don’t want to whine and cry. There’s a lot of money involved.”
Kentucky associate coach Vince Marrow also coaches tight ends and felt like a “son was leaving” when Dingle put his name into the transfer portal. Marrow said sophomore tight end Josh Kattus was upset Dingle left.
“If Kattus was selfish, he would have been glad he was leaving (because it would have meant more opportunities for Kattus),” Marrow said. “There was a school that poked him (Dingle) a little big and they did want him and offered him a lot.”
Marrow believes once Dingle looked at what was best with relationships and the offense, he decided it “fitted him more staying” at Kentucky.
“There are no hard feelings. We definitely did not want to lose him. He is a big part of our football team,” Marrow said. “Our room is not selfish. We have got to be involved in the run game and pass protection.”
Marrow said NFL scouts are looking at both Dingle and Kattus because of their blocking skills and in today’s NFL if a tight end cannot block it’s hard to make the league.
2 Responses
Poor kicking and kick coverage, turnovers, dropped passes, poor passing decisions, and a defense that allowed 3rd and forever conversions for eventual scores, not just once, but twice. No team can overcome these errors at this frequency against a decent team.
Dingle is huge, but how many opportunities did he have to handle the ball and do what Marrow and Stoops both say they are glad to have with him around.
This is a game that UK gave away.
UK is undefeated when playing themselves. We notoriously cant keep leads, especially late to win games. We got beat thoro by 2 teams. The other 3 games (tenn, usc, mizz) were games we beat ourselves by mistakes, penalties, or not keeping leads aka beating ourselves. And this was consistant all year, handled by a certain part of the team. Very well should have been 10-2 or 11-2 with the bowl…we are right on the edge of turning that corner and leveling up. Lets hope we get it cleaned up in ’23 ’24.