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Could Kentucky have five new starters in the offensive line next season?
Certainly the overall line play was an issue at times last year for UK and center Eli Cox and tackle Marques Cox are both out of eligibility.
Kentucky signed its fifth offensive lineman transfer when 6-3, 322-pound Shiyazh Pete of New Mexico State confirmed Sunday he had picked Kentucky over Nebraska and Michigan — the two supposed leaders for him going into the weekend after he had turned down Vanderbilt.
He was a three-year starter at left tackle with over 1,800 career snaps even though an injury made him miss most of the 2024 season. He was first-team all-C-USA in 2023.
Pete has been effective both as a run blocker and pass protector but has not faced the type of defensive linemen he will in the Southeastern Conference.
Offensive line coach Eric Wolford has obviously hand picked the transfers and one has to wonder if he will start this group next season: Center Evan Wibberly (Western Kentucky), guard Joshua Braun (Arkansas), guard Alexander Wollschlaeger (Bowling Green), tackle Shivazh Pete (New Mexico State) and tackle Wallace Unamba (New Mexico).
Offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan and Wolford will have to mold a unit together quickly. Neither one has coached any of the transfer linemen and chemistry is always stressed as a huge requirement in the offensive line, especially if UK gets back to a run-heavy offense that coach Mark Stoops seems to prefer.
5 Responses
5 new OL players. 10 new OL players.
It does not matter who or how many changes are made at each position if the same loser OC and OL coach are still at UK. A real OL coach would have developed the techniques in the talented OL group UK had in 2024.
Changing the ingredients to a good recipe will not improve the dish if it’s the chef who needs to be replaced. Hasn’t overpaid Stoops learned ANYTHING during his era of “on the job” training to be the HC !?
With what we saw from last year, which was supposed to be the best team Stoops ever put together, what’s on paper doesn’t win many games. I’ll wait to see it on the field.
Definitely can’t base it on what we read✔️
I think the talent in offense was much better than we saw because of the lack of coaching & leadership.
I think Jalen Farmer starts and what about Jager Burton? He’s started the last 3 years it would be hard for me to say he doesn’t start as a redshirt senior. Farmer was our best o lineman last year on paper and grades so I think he gets the nod at guard. We have alot more options this year then we had last year. We also have Aba Selm who was considered the best freshman lineman last year. I think he takes a big step forward this year. Marc Nave is also a name to remember. Wolfturd said he was the best freshman offensive lineman he’s ever coached. When I say that I’m saying coachable. Like I guess he’s the only one who listens lol. Then we have a couple of other freshman who redshirted who will be much better in year 2. I think we have 8-9 good offensive lineman on this team. Last year we had 3-4 average offensive lineman but there was always 1 or 2 guys out of place or getting a costly penalty. Pete will start at Left tackle. Farmer will start at left guard. Center will be Evan Wibberly. Right guard will be Josh Braun. Right tackle could be Jager Burton. They could move him to tackle because he was projected to play tackle his freshman and sophomore year. Wallace Unamba will be the 6th man filling in for whatever tackle needs a break. Alexander W. Will be the 7th man giving whichever guard needs a break. Then you have the freshman tackle who made all SEC freshman team his name has slipped my mind. But thats 8 deep. Then you have Selm, Nave, Hayes Johnson who I think by the end of this year will start getting playing time at center when Wibberly needs a break. We are a much more cohesive unit this year and we should be much more disciplined his team has a ton of guys in there last year of college football they will want to go out with a bang! I think our offense will be much better this year and our defense will also be much better this year. All that said we could have a way better team and still go 6-6 or 7-5. I would like to see Stoops win at least 8 games next year and then finish his career at Kentucky with a 9 or 10 win year to get I’m back to .500. I think he will leave Kentucky if he gets his record back up to 500. He doesn’t want to coach somewhere for 13-14 years and have a losing record. It makes the school look bad for sticking with you and the coach look bad for wearing out his welcome!
Interesting info on the projected OL. I still believe UK was not well coached by the OC or OL coach and a lot of players were blamed whereas it should have been the lack of coaching ability.
As for Stoops, he lost my support completely early in 2024 after slipping in 2022 and 2023. Three years of sliding into cellar level failure is on the HC because he built the program up to get 10 wins in 2 seasons before losing control of the entire team. His failures year after year with relating to the OC and repeated refusal to assign a full tiime Special Teams Coach years ago (even after admitting it cost UK some games) and his absolute zero knowledge about offense finally all caught up with him and the UK FB program essentially self-inflicted a near-death penalty on the program!
So, Stoops totally lost my support and definitely a major portion of the BBN feels the same way. He was too bone-headed to listen to anyone else,