Eli Cox, who has accepted an invitation to play in the Hula Bowl.
When Eli Cox announced his commitment to play football at the University of Kentucky he was so excited about his lifetime dream coming true.
He was not a four-star recruit at West Jessamine High School. His team was not a state football power. He was not overwhelmed with college offers. Yet then UK offensive line coach John Schlarman saw something in Cox that could be developed and Cox.
Cox played six years for Kentucky, played in 56 games and started the last 47 games of his career that ended with the 41-14 loss to Louisville. It was not the ideal ending for him, especially considering UK finished 4-8 and had an eight-year bowl streak snapped.
He was a starter at right guard in 2021 when UK won 10 games and went to the Citrus Bowl. He played for coaches John Schlarman, Eric Wolford (twice) and Zach Yenser.
“As someone from this state who participated in the rivalry (with Louisville) and had success (five straight wins), this is a tough way to go out,” said Cox after the game. “I know we disappointed the state and wish we could have had a more competitive showing.”
Cox leaves UK with no regrets. He admits it “meant the world to me to play here” and have a chance to represent the state.
“My sophomore year of high school I had started spring practice and coach Schlarman came to practice to record some drills. That’s the first experience I ever had with any recruitment. It was the first moment I realized I had a chance to be recruited and play at Kentucky,” Cox said. “I was blessed with the size and ability to play at this level and luckily they took a chance on me.”
Cox understands the criticism the offensive line got the last few seasons. He believes in the transfer portal era that offensive line play nationally has taken a “dip” due to more roster turnover.
“When guys are in and out of a program it is hard to develop. It was out of the norm for guys to transfer when I first started college,” he said. “When guys stay here and play for coaches in the same system you can develop a line. It takes two years to get ready to play good, physical SEC football.
“Drake Jackson, Luke Fortner, Mason Wolfe, Landon Young, Kenneth Horsey, Darian Kinnard, Quintin Wilson, Austin Dotson. I could go on and on down the list of guys who were in this program for four, five, six years that were all here and were roommates and were teammates and were classmates for years and years and years and taught me the culture and how to play.
“Some guys (here) had to play before they were ready. We had a mass exodus of linemen to the portal and playing catch up in the portal is difficult. There are not a lot of high level offensive linemen floating around.”
Since 2021, Kentucky has had 10 offensive linemen transfer into the program. Only one, Marques Cox, started more than one year.
“I would love to see this program get back to where it was but it will take consistency and recruiting guys that fit this culture and not just the transfer portal,” Cox said. “It will take guys bought into this program. We want to play physical, run the ball and control the game. That’s when this offense is at its best and playing its most cohesive football.
“If you want to be part of the program that works hard and be a blue-collar player, I promised you that is what coach Stoops is going to get back to and what this program needs. We need to get back to being a nasty, blue collar program and have players that fit this culture.”
8 Responses
I don’t think Wolford is the guy who can develop O linemen. He didn’t do that in his first go round at UK. He nearly destroyed Bama’s OLine and I have seen nothing this past year to make me think he even cares. He may have had the most undisciplined O line at UK, ever!
Chip Trayanum has reported entered the Portal today. Not sure he wanted to play for UK at all with delayed injury status. Is it something in the water in Lexington or possibly the Culture under current staff?
The Star Quarterbacks, Halfbacks and Receivers get all the Glory but it’s the Men up front that Win or Lose ball games!! We have to get an O-Line and D-Line coach that develops young guys into the Strongest! The Meanest! The Fastest! Warriors who aren’t happy without Blood and Sweat on their opponents in the trenches! We need guys that want to be known as “The Monsters of the Bluegrass” Linemen at all the SEC schools! Ones that scare opposing teams Linemen. The Motto of our Kentucky National Guard is “Fight Like Kentuckians” ! It’s past time our UK Big Men up front play like this!
The current staff has induced an undercurrent of discontent because of a lack of acceptable respect the players & coaches have for each other.
Stoops has hired some real losers including 2 OC’s (complex scheme and the current one) and ran off the good ones by controlling them and stalling the offense. The OL coach is exactly as posted above – damaged UK OL his first time and co ole felt shatters this season.
Stoops apparent is clueless about choosing good coaches. The secondary coach is as bad as bad can get. Week after week, 3rd and long was almost a guarantee the opponent would pass for big yardage and a 1st down.
Stoops peaked when Coen & Levis led the offense to 10 wins. Since then, it’s been a mess.
We need offensive lineman that can actually move. Even if we have to get lineman that weigh 285-295 pounds. Do you see how great Indiana, Army, BYU, and Boise states offensive lines are? You don’t see 6’6" 330 pound lineman. Stoops seems to think the only way you can compete in the SEC is to have these giant offensive lineman. You can get lineman that are 6’1 285 pounds or 6’2 290 pound or even 6’0 295 type lineman are better than 6’5 328 pound slow lineman. We can never pass block because the defense runs right by our slow offensive lineman. We need more speed on the line. We need tackles that can move there bodies and feet and we need interior lineman that can push the defense forward or hold the pocket. Smaller lineman can get underneath of the defense. We also need bigger tight ends. Our tight ends are small and he wants them to pass block it just doesn’t make any sense. I also would prefer them to get a coach that runs a 4-3 defense. Us not getting the recruits that Georgia and Alabama get we don’t get the right 4* and 5* guys to run his complicated defensive schemes that take track stars to jump the passes in the spaced zone we run. If we ran a 4-3 and had 2 defensive tackles and 2 defensive ends we could stop the run better and get more pressure on the quarterback. We will suck next year too and then Mark Stoops will leave. I don’t know why we don’t go ahead and fire him instead of waiting another year for the inevitable!
Are you kidding me? Just heard that Chip Tranum is entering the portal again. We get the guy here on a NIL deal, he spends the entire season the injured list and now is bailing out. These are the kind of people we are dealing with now. Slugs.. Simply slugs.
Shaden Sharpe of football.
UK is 1 of only 3 teams in the SEC…
not going bowling.
13 SEC teams will be in bowl games.
That’s 81 1/4 % of the SEC!
That’s the result of a $9 Million HC with a costly revolving door staff.
No coaching ABILITY @ OC & OL coach
No coaching STABILITY @ OC & OL coach
these are the result of incompetent hiring skills & evaluation skills when finding a coach