Tight end Henry Boyer, an Illinois transfer, believes he can help UK's offense in a variety of ways. (Vicky Graff Photo)
What made Kentucky the right school when tight end Henry Boyer decided to leave Illinois after three years where he played in 25 games with two starts?
“I came down here on my visit, and it’s kind of one of those things where it checked all my boxes,” the 6-6, 265-pound Boyer said.
Boyers had only three catches for 20 yards at Illinois but Kentucky is not known for throwing to tight ends, either. Still, Boyer was looking beyond football when he committed to UK.
“I’m from Chicago, so it’s not like Kentucky is all the way across the country. I like the academics here. I really like the coaching staff,” Boyer said. “You always have great respect for schools like Kentucky, schools that play in this conference. When I got into the transfer portal and I got a call from (assistant) coach (Vince) Marrow, that was really exciting. It was a great opportunity for me.”
Boyer was a three-star recruit and top 50 tight end nationally coming out of high school. He was also an all-around athlete who also participated in baseball, basketball and track (shot put and discus) in high school.
Boyer believes he can be equally effective as a blocker or pass catcher depending on what coach Mark Stoops wants.
“I’m willing to do whatever I have to do to help this team win and to have a really enjoyable, fun season,” Boyer said. “I felt like when I talked to coach Marrow, I really liked everything he had to say.”
Boyer did his “research” on Marrow and liked the track record of success he had at Kentucky.
“I don’t think someone stays somewhere so long if they haven’t had some success. I have trust in the coaching staff,” Boyer said. “I know that they’re gonna take care of me, that they’re gonna develop me, and in turn, I know I can help this football team.”
4 Responses
Marrow probably should get 100% of the recruiting credit. Any TE who signs with UK should know that the UK HC & OC do not know it’s legal to pass to a TE! Even Bill Curry, who was clueless about offense, knew the value and capitalized on it.
I agree and this is the biggest head scratcher. Usually when teams are bad at passing the tight ends are there safety valve. You should be able to hit the tight end for a 5-10 yard gain every time. We never throw it to the tight ends. They can be wide open and still don’t get the ball thrown to them. Now with Bush calling the plays they really won’t throw the ball to the tight ends. Last year we had our offensive lineman blocking with 2 tight ends staying home blocking that’s 7 guys blocking for the QB and pur QB would still get killed every time. That’s a major problem with 7 people blocking the QB should have all day to pass the ball. With 7 guys blocking and the Quarterback thats 8 guys. Then you have a running back also blocking you only have 2 guys running routes against 5 defensive backs that’s never going to work and I don’t see what the F$%& Bush is thinking. I know this isn’t a s Stoops call because I’ve never seen it before. Bush must have had the idea maybe if I have 8 guys blocking for the QB maybe he will have time to throw it to 2 people. Its a bonehead decision. He should at least have one of the tight ends run a route or both of them block for 1 second then run a delayed route. Never. Never happens. Our tight ends are used the wrong way that’s why we can never keep tight ends they always transfer. Look at dingle from bowling green. Wasted 4 years on the roster and was a great receiving tight end. He transferred to south Carolina think about that. That’s our rival in the sec. Its always either we are good and if were not good South Carolina is good. We are never good at the same time. Its weird. But for Dingle to change schools his last year says alot. We don’t know how to utilize tight ends. We don’t know how to utilize running backs. We also don’t know how to utilize quarterbacks and receivers. We did good on defense up until last year. We usually have a good defense and terrible offense. Last year we was terrible at both. We will see what this year brings. Bush will never win. He destroyed Boise State football. They were in the running for the playoffs last year when Bush left!! Do you see the writing on the wall? Now he’s calling plays in the sec. His plays didn’t work in some Busch league football conference what made Stoops think he would be great here in the sec?? We should have gotten bobby petrino as the offensive coordinator.
Solid analysis of all the non-working parts on offense. Stoops must watch old Ohio Stste films – 3 yards & a cloud of use. He is clueless that some stadiums have artificial turf and a cloud of dust is not possible.
Vince Marrow should be making twice the incompetent OC. He is going to leave at some point and make more money for a team whose HC and OC will produce big results with his recruits.
UK 2026 FB recruiting continues to be very close to 0-fer. I think we still only have 1 recruit and this weekend we have already lost 2 targets to Rutgers and 1 target to Minnesota. Our recruiting continues to be as successful as our coaching.