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After head coach Mark Stoops and the recruiting coordinator finished commenting on Kentucky’s 2025 football signing class and vowing to put together a roster to rectify this year’s 4-8 finish, the Cats took a HUGE HIT.
Receiver Dane Key, a Lexington native and son of former UK linebacker Donte Key, announced he was transferring after spending three years at Kentucky.
“Nobody panic. We’re going to have a better football team (next year),” Stoops said to end his signing day press conference a few hours before Key’s announcement on social media.
There had been speculation that Key, a four-star recruit who picked UK over Oregon, South Carolina, Michigan, and many others, might opt to leave Kentucky to enter the NFL draft. That would have been an upward move. But deciding to leave his hometown school where he dreamed of playing like his father did is a huge PR hit for UK no matter how Stoops tries to spin it.
Key had career highs in catches (47) and receiving yards (715) in 2024 for UK’s anemic offense. He did that in 11 games and missed the second half of the Louisville game with an injury.
He had back-to-back 100-yard receiving games and a streak of 83 or more yards in four of five games at midseason.
Key is fifth on Kentucky’s career receiving yards list (1,870) and had an outside chance to challenge Craig Yeast’s career receiving yardage record of 2,899 yards if he stayed at UK another year.
Key is the second starter to announce plans to enter the transfer portal and highest rated player to leave Kentucky via the transfer portal. Nose guard Keeshawn Silver already had made his plan public and joined linebacker Jayvant Brown, edge rusher Tommy Ziesmer, tight ends Khamari Anderson and Tanner Lemaster, defensive back Avery Stuart, backup long snapper Walker Himebauch and offensive tackle Courtland Ford with plans to go into the transfer portal.
“There will be some names on there (in the transfer portal) that we don’t want to lose,” Stoops said during his opening statement Wednesday. “I told you I anticipated that. It’s part of it. I don’t think there is a team in college football that’s not going to lose a few guys that they want on their team.”
Stoops also stressed that continuity was important but was realistic about what might be coming before Key made his decision public.
“Let’s be honest, we didn’t have a very good year, so I’m pretty excited about change. We need some positive change,” Stoops said.
Positive change, yes. But losing Key is not going to be seen as a positive sign but rather a sign that there are serious issues in the UK program/culture.
22 Responses
I think there’s more going on in our football program than we think. Were losing football players left and right to the transfer and next year recruiting class as well. Stoops needs get in stop this bleeding and get the program back were it belongs.
Cats…..there is not more going on in program than we thought. What is happening is what many of us have suspected beyond just this year and that is a severe void in institutional control, quality coaching, and player development and proper utilization. Cappy and Barney both need to step up and accept culpability for this disaster. Is there any SEC team entering 2025 with lower expectations than UK? Can you name 1?
He needs to concentrate more on the football program and less on grandkids trust funds, partying and coeds.
Losing a local kid whose Dad played for UK ?????? And it’s not like we didn’t target him – threw to him even when he wasn’t open .🤯
I think for Key the move is obvious. He will be a senior next year and probably wants to play where a great quarterback will be playing. Think about how bad Cutter looked against Louisville. Now think about being a senior. Needing a big senior year to amplify your draft stock. Would you come back to a crumbling program with a freshman quarterback? I know I wouldn’t. He needs a great quarterback throwing to him where he can have a 1,000 yard season. I think Key can be a second or third round NFL pick. Coming back to a Kentucky with unstable quarterback and o line play could be the difference in him selected second or third round or him being taken in the 5th-7th round. You want that guaranteed money and guaranteed production. It didn’t look like Cutter looked for Key as much as Brock did and I think this another reason of many that he’s leaving. I’m going to be honest and wish this was Barion Brown instead of Key. If Brown leaves which I think he does we will be very thin and young at receiver once again. We were finally starting to get some experience at receiver then this happens. I can see Gilmore and Farrier starting next year with Maclin at the slot. That is if they come back next year. We definitely need to go after at least 2 or 3 receivers in the portal. I would take 4 of them. Can I ask a quick question? I don’t want anyone to get mad at me and this is not racial in anyway just a observation. Why do we never have any white defensive guys or white receivers? That actually play? You would think Stoops is racist on defense. If you look at the NFL it has a ton of white guys on defense. If you look at Kentucky under Stoops hes only had one white guy who actually gets snaps and thats your boy from Eastern Kentucky. Also in the NFL you see white slot receivers I never see it at Kentucky. I don’t personally care like I said just a observation! What makes it very unusual is they recruit Ohio thoroughly and its 50/50 white black but we never get any of the white boys! Would it matter absolutely not but did I observe this…yes! My cousins and I laugh about it. I have mixed cousins and they actually brought it to my attention. I hadn’t noticed until they told me a couple of years ago and then I seen it and was like damn its true lol!
It’s called identity recruiting.
One more thing we can’t keep a 4* receiver around. We’ve lost 3 of them since last year. It seems like we really struggle getting playmakers here. The last 2 big time playmakers were Wandale Robinson and Lynn Bowden since then we haven’t had a guy who could make 2-3 people miss him. Its down by contact almost every single time. Especially with Brown.
Brown and Mincey both on my "Underachiever of the Year" awards. The list could also be quickly expanded if needed.
Players are leaving because Stoops is staying! They have seen the train wreck with our team this season and nobody wants to be in the next one. The buyout for Stoops and his staff is over $50 million…another brilliant example of Barnhart’s stupidity. We need a new athletic director first, then a new football coach. It appears that Caliputo doesn’t have a clue about what is going on in our athletic department. The Board of Regents needs to step in and clean the house and start from scratch.
Let’s give Barnhart credit for Women’s Basketball this year. Women’s volleyball for the last several years. Baseball team going to the World Series. Track and field gold medal Olympians on our team.
Finally Hiring Pope. Gold Medal rifle team.
But, Stoops and Calipari contracts were terrible.
Every statement is precisely correct!
Need to clean house from the out of touch President to the secret contract AD
Precisely right in every count.
Clean house from the out of touch President to the incompetent secret contract AD and a basket full of FB coaches!! B
There is WITHOUT A DOUBT much more going on in our FB program than we know. I think if we all knew what all was really going on we would be sick, and I have a feeling it would be almost 100% unanimous that Stoops should go. I gotta say one thing: Key leaving obviously is the one transfer that will get all the headlines with our team, but do u know how bad a shape a program has to be in when A BACKUP LONG SNAPPER hits the transfer portal??? For some reason, that just jumped out at me when reading the article–maybe because u just never hear about those as much, but i just have a feeling that it’s not often that backup long snappers for ANY TEAM hit the transfer portal! Maybe I’m wrong. Usually though, the guys who play that position stick to one school, one team, and let’s face it, how many programs are thinking about that position when it comes to their negotiating money for deals with players–for example, it isn’t the same as making a priority to try to get Barion Brown or Dane Key. And not just a long snapper, but a BACKUP long snapper! So how often is he playing anyway? So I guess playing time is one factor that could play into the decision–but u gotta figure in the case of a backup long snapper transferring, chances are he is leaving to find a better team CULTURE and better team ENVIRONMENT than for anything else. That tells me A LOT about the current culture and state of KY FB. Stoops has allowed the program to revert back to the level it was 12 yrs ago when he came to rebuild us from the ashes of the Joker nightmare. The irony is too much: welcome to Joker 2.0 next year. It will be as if he never left to start with–or that we have gone back 12 yrs in time. It’s a disaster when u think about the same coach TEARING DOWN the accomplishments that he made here himself, and the level at which he had made KY FB respectable again, and competitive in the SEC. Records, # of wins and losses aside, all a reasonable UK FB fan wanted was a respectable program and a program that could compete in the SEC. Some years u won’t win as many SEC games as others. But the two years we went 7-6 back to back, while maybe a little disappointing depending on individual circumstances, quality of play, and particular games, at minimum u aren’t losing ground those seasons, u r keeping the winning-record streak going and the consecutive bowl-streak going–with playing in the SEC monster, thats all we can ever reasonably expect at KY. Just think this year, if we just beat SCAR and VANDY, that gets us to 6 wins and minimum bowl eligibility. Not great, but the benefits u get as a program from continuing to go to bowls and getting those extra practices, that beats the hell outta 4-8, does it not? And things like keeping the bowl streak alive, they are important for the CULTURE of the program. Thats what Stoops has lost. He found an identity at least when he built KY back up on the philosophy of being a tough, hard-nosed, blue-collar program that was big and physical on the O-Line and D-Line, and developed tough, hard-nosed running backs like Benny Snell and Chris Rodriguez. And building a defense that was big and physical and could create pressure on the QB and at the line of scrimmage–and could create turnovers. That aspect of Stoops’ philosophy DID WORK here, and other SEC coaches who played against us backed that up. The biggest SEC wins of Stoops’ era have all been won that way. That’s the part that we have lost now, today. But u also have to find an identity offensively, I’m sorry, u can’t win ANY games period, when u score 8 offensive TDs, or whatever it was, in 10 games against Power 5 competition. U have to find a way to move the ball down the field, get it up in the air, find a way to move the ball in the short-to-intermediate passing game, find an OC who also knows how to coach and develop a QB, find one who knows how to throw the ball away when the pressure comes, and the pocket breaks down. Find one who can scan the field and who has the ability to lock in on more than one receiver at a time. Get receivers who can get separation and get open downfield, and guys who can run routes correctly. Find a way to run the ball where the play doesn’t develop 5 yrs behind the line of scrimmage. Find a way to create tempo, and make opposing defenses actually have to work to try and stop u. Find O-linemen who know how to pass-block. Get your tight ends involved in the passing game. Find a passing game period! But I have been going on and on about all this for 12 yrs, except for when Will Levis was here. Stoops should just bring back the Lynn Bowden offense again and make Eddie Gran his OC to run it. He’s the only OC he has ever trusted anyway, and it’s the only offense Stoops has ever proven he knows how to run. If anybody thinks all of this is going to get better, then I have a winning Powerball ticket over here that I can cash in today. Stoops, u have CAL’d out–your time has come and gone, u have accomplished everything u ever can here, the best of it was great and fun, but the recent years show a trend and pattern away from that, u are showing u are not able to at least SUSTAIN anything respectable or competitive—when your guys are not showing up for the LOU game anymore, thats when i know u have lost the culture here. Respectability and competitiveness. All UK fans ask is to be on the same level of playing field as SCAR, VANDY, MISSOURI, MISS ST, ARK–be at a place where u can beat those teams consistently, then from there u go after trying to beat FLA, Ole Miss, AUB, TN semi-regularly. U don’t have to beat GA or BAMA to prove anything to us–u know, when u look at it, as bad a rap as our fans get, we really don’t ask much from our football program in the long run, unlike most of the other SEC programs. But maybe we need to start changing that, maybe that’s part of the problem, maybe we don’t ask enough of our FB program, and maybe we have had a coach here who is taking advantage of that. Since the game is changing, maybe we need to change our expectations. But I will just take respectability and competitiveness again. Because sadly enough, we have lost those things, and that lies at the feet of Stoops. He’s responsible. And he takes no accountability for it at all. He basically denies there is any problem, yet says he is going to "get it fixed". Who does that sound like? He didn’t show up for his radio show the other night? Who does that sound like? Respectability and competitiveness–remember those two things. Stoops has lost those two things gradually in the last 3 years, and it finally ballooned and caught up to the program this year. Next year offers no hope those trends will change or get better. Everybody remember: Stoops told us DEC 2024 to not panic, that we will have a better football team next year. Coach, we will be watching next year. And waiting. Waiting for respectability and competitiveness. U are going to get another year to at least bring those things back. If, at the end of next year, nothing has changed, the silence from the athletic administration will no longer be tolerated. And if u were to ask me–no, I don’t have a list–give me any other coach in the country at the Division I level who has some semblance of a concept and an imagination offensively when it comes to moving the ball down the field and being able to score, and being able to do it with a good balance philosophically and schematically. THATS my list. One guy. ANY GUY—answering that description. Until then, it’s Joker 2.0 for KY FOOTBALL.
I think everyone is reading too much into this. It’s about the money and nothing else. UK can get a kid, develop him and have him leave when he becomes a star. That’s what NIL is. For teams like KY that do not have Billion dollar collectives, it’s a no win. Invest in a kid, develop him and then watch him leave for bigger bucks. Can’t blame the kid. Even if you put a minimum contract period on NIL agreement, another school can simply buy it out.
Bottom line: You have to give the kid a reason to stay. If I’m the kid, I would be comparing what I’m earning now with what I am likely to earn by staying with a WINNING program. I could be wrong but I would say that this was what was going through Key’s mind when he made the decision.
Barion Brown just announced his decision to transfer. Not exactly bad news. Some folks may call this addition by subtraction. Stoops said that yesterday was a fun day. I wonder if he still feels the same today. He is about as detached from reality as Biden/Harris.
Take it easy on Joe.
He can’t help it.
It’s called elder abuse.
Superior post!!! 👏
His wife should be ashamed of herself just like Stoops should be ashamed of himself for lying and telling fans that we were going to have a great team.
Just to trick people into buying season tickets.
You don’t trust Stoops saying we are going to have better team next year?
I don’t trust anybody that consistently runs out on their bar/restaurant bill.
I’ve been waiting for that better team for over 50 years. Talk about insane.
Kentucky football will not recover under Stoops leadership. He will milk his contract for all he can and then leave once the contract is up…possibly retire with the SEC cellar reputation he will earn in his last years.