Freshman receiver DJ Miller impressed UK coaches with his speed during spring practice. (UK Athletics Photo)
Kentucky has added five receivers via the transfer portal for next season but true freshman DJ Miller of St. Louis made a positive impact during spring practice. The 6-3, 197-pound Miller picked UK over Tennessee and Mississippi.
He was a four-star prospect who had 109 catches for 1,703 yards and 18 scores in 33 high school games. He played on Class 5A state championship teams the last two seasons and had 71 catches for 1,032 yards and eight touchdowns in 11 games in 2024.
“He’s a long, tall guy that can really run,” UK receivers coach L’Damian Washington said. “He catches the ball really well. He had a really good spring. All those freshmen – Miller, (Montavin) Quisenberry and (Preston) Bowman – had huge spring practices and really got me excited.”
Washington says not to overlook Fred Farrier, who transferred to UK last year after three seasons at UAB. The former Franklin County star had 13 catches for 126 yards in 12 games at UK last season.
“Fred has put in the work. He’s been consistent. He’s a coach’s son, and he plays like it and he’s a tough competitor,” Washington said. “He’s somebody who you can count on to go out and make plays.”
The receivers coach also liked the personal struggles that sophomore David Washington had to overcome during spring practice.
‘To see his growth and to see him continue to persevere and just show up daily was impressive. He found out probably right before the spring that I was going to move him to X. He went to X and he hadn’t really been there but that just shows you who he is as a person,” the UK assistant coach said. “He was ready for his moment, and he had a really good spring .”
Washington is in his first year coaching at UK and is still trying to figure out the playing rotation for next season.
“It’s a room with a lot of guys, including myself, that has a lot to prove. To be honest with you, I’m excited about the challenge,” Washington said. “I’m excited about trying to continue every day to show that group exactly what it looks like to be successful in the SEC.
“I think that’s the good thing in our group that we do have a lot of guys that have a lot to prove. We’re all up for the task, or we better be. I know you guys want to possess the rock (football) but they have to also show they can do other things to get that chance.”
8 Responses
I think we have upgraded the wide receiver room. Its Much deeper than last year.
Should anyone really need to be concerned?
What happens if they don’t improve?
Stoops is at Kentucky until HE decides to retire or take the job at Youngstown State.
If he doesn’t make a bowl game I think he will get fired or try to find another job. He’s been here 12 seasons and 8 straight bowl games and then he lays a egg. You have to give him a chance and this year is possibly it. Bad thing is our 2024 class will also leave if he gets fired at the end of the year then we would have start completely from scratch. If he gets to a bowl game this year that will be why he stays because we have a ton of youth on this football team and they will get better and better.
Stelatto?? I think he’s the dark horse. He was utilized at Clemson and Clemson gets way better recruits then Kentucky does and they are very talented so I know if he had a decent career at Clemson he can be a nice part of the wide receiver rotation. No way we don’t see him play? If he doesn’t play something is seriously wrong with our staff. He’s older stronger faster and should be giving it his everything seeing it’s his one and only year here in Lexington.
I’m starting to get a little worried that recruits know something that we don’t know in the 2026 class I started looking at other teams that have a average of about 10 commits in the 2026 with Louisville standing at #14 with 13 commits and we only have 1 commit?? One thing that is obvious is that Bush Hamdan cannot recruit at all. Your offensive coordinator has to be a good recruiter to help out the recruiting coordinator. Liam Coen used to recruit about 5-6 players on the team Bush has landed 0. That’s the biggest difference between the 2 and Liam was a great quarterback coach that’s still up in the air because Brock wasn’t good at all but he also had a terrible line blocking for him. It was so bad and he got hit so much that he retired during a age where you get paid regardless. He could have probably made a million dollars if he would have went into the portal. So that tells me something!
Hopefully Stoops and staff are putting out some feelers for new jobs next season because we have to be the bottom dweller in SEC for 26 FB recruits and is is really quite laughable what Stoops and staff have evolved into.
I think we are getting ahead of ourselves a bit. This team hasn’t fielded one snap yet and everyone has Stoops headed somewhere else. Perhaps you are right but lets see what this team does. One thing NIL has done is you can buy a whole new team from one year to the next. Stop using up so much air this early. I have a feeling that there will be plenty to talk about in September.
With you RJohn. Keep the faith and see what happens