Malachi Wood (71) made his first start against Auburn last week. (UK Athletics Photo)
Kentucky’s offensive line is going to be looking for a lot of new players next season due to the age of the offensive line starters this season.
Offensive line coach Eric Wolford likes what two young players — redshirt freshman tackle Malachi Wood and true freshman guard Ana Selm — have been doing.
“I can tell you this, Abe is ready. I am excited about his progress. He just got here in January. I am really encouraged by him. He lifts weights four days a week, he works hard, he’s a student of the game. He does the things he needs to do to be a good player,” Wolford said. “I hope to get him reps soon but we want to make sure we save that extra year for him.”
Wood weighed 280 when he got to UK. He’s now at 315 pounds and got his first significant playing time at Florida before making his first collegiate start last week in the loss to Auburn where he struggled at times with his blocking on the edge. Wolford said his experience has taught him it normally takes at least two years for a high school offensive lineman to be ready to play in the SEC where the majority of defensive linemen are future NFL draft picks.
Wood said it was a “dream come true being a hometown kid (from Richmond)” to play for Kentucky.
He said he’s been learning from older offensive linemen by watching what they do in the film room and practice field. Adding weight has also been a huge benefit once he learned how to add good weight.
“We have bought into the process. You just can’t go in on Saturday and go 100 percent. You have to do the work during the week, too,” Wood said.
7 Responses
It sounds like we are waving the white flag on this season, and if we get pounded in Knoxville tonight, that might be the way to go. If Omari Williams is going to be out until December or later, it would be interesting to see what Deion Walker could do for us on the hardwood court.
They need a new excuse as to why they are so terrible this year. Now its going to be injuries and we were playing freshman and its hard to win like that. Every team has the same rules and they play against the same opponents as we do there is no reason for half the starters to be hurt. I’ve never seen anything like it. Maybe the seniors are giving up that’s why I said I would play all freshman and backups. The starters don’t deserve to play any more football. Weve seen 3 years in a row of bad football. Next year will be another "rebuilding year" because we are losing a ton of guys off this team. With the transfer portal and nil money. Its easy to buy your team how your want it to be. Also you should never put the same product on the field in back to back seasons. We’ve laid an egg for 3 straight years and its gotten worse every year.
If we have a kid ready to go, let him play. No need to worry about a red shirt year. With the transfer portal, you’re probably just saving that year for another team.
Wolford is the one guy I don’t understand Stoops bringing back. He started the OL downfall, and he came back to finish it.
Me either Jimmy
Why this guy is a OLine coordinator is beyond me.
I’ve been saying this since before the Florida game. The freshman can’t do any worse than all these guys that have a ton of experience. At least start playing some of these freshman. I would start at least all the backups. I would let everyone get a quarter against Murray State. Especially the quarterbacks. If Brock had a better line I don’t know how much better he would be that’s the question. He had one of the best lines at Georgia and didn’t start. If our line was a little better we still wouldn’t be as good as Georgia’s line so how much better will he really be? That’s the question. He does have another year of eligibility but is this who you want leading your team next year? He doesn’t seem like a vocal leader. His play is questionable even when the line does give him time. I just don’t know where I would go from here. I would definitely look into the transfer portal but do you want a new quarterback every single year? There is no continuity within that and that’s another thing that has been a problem here. I would get Cutter ready to be the man next year or at least go into spring practice with a open sign next to the quarterback position. I do know one thing I would hit the transfer portal very hard at the offensive line position. I would put most of my chips in on good offensive lineman in the portal. Because if Brock is the quarterback next year he’s going to need time to throw the ball. We also need some better receivers. We have capable tight ends we just never get them involved. They are supposed to be a safety net for the quarterback if you have bad receivers. So I just don’t understand why they don’t get more targets every game. At the bare minimum 10 targets. Bush says he keeps the tight ends home to block. Good luck selling that to recruits. Running routes is the prize for tight ends for blocking good. We don’t do that. Receivers need to be able to run good routes but receivers also Ned to be able to read the defense and make adjustments. We are terrible at that. Key is good at it seeing that he’s double teamed on nearly every pass play. That should free up other receivers but not here at Kentucky.