Montavin Quisenberry had just one catch for UK last season and has put his name into the transfer portal. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Some of Kentucky’s biggest in-state football recruiting wins in the last two years for coach Mark Stoops were Cutter Boley, Jacob Smith, Jerod Smith, Montavin Quisenberry, and Javeon Campbell.
They were all recruited by former UK associate coach/recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow, who left Kentucky during the summer for Louisville.
Now all of those players are planning to enter the transfer portal and will not be at Kentucky to play for new coach Will Stein.
Obviously, the decision by Boley, UK’s starting quarterback for 10 games last season, created the most significant buzz, which makes sense after Stoops called him the “future” of Kentucky football. But the other four are all intriguing.
Twins Jacob Smith and Jerod Smith moved back to Kentucky for the 2023 season and played for Corbin after spending time at prep school. They were both Michigan commits when they came back to the Bluegrass, but both flipped their commitments to UK after a home win over Frederick Douglass with Marrow and UK defensive coordinator Brad White at the game.
Outside linebacker Jacob Smith will be a redshirt sophomore next season with three years of eligibility remaining. He had a variety of injuries last season after not playing a single defensive snap as a redshirt freshman in 2025.
Defensive lineman Jerod Smith will be a junior with two years of eligibility. He had 54 snaps in 12 games in 2024 with seven tackles. As a sophomore in 2025, he was in on 283 snaps and had 27 tackles, five tackles for loss, one sack, one forced fumble, and 10 quarterback pressures.
Quisenberry, a true freshman, had just one catch in 2025. He had over 8,000 yards of offense in high school — mainly at Boyle County after transferring from Garrard County — and was named Kentucky Mr. Football, Kentucky Gatorade Player of the Year, and Paul Horning Award winner as a senior.
Campbell was also a true freshman and a four-star recruit despite playing only two years of high school football at Western Hills. He was a sign-and-develop player who needed weight and strength but had elite physical skills. However, remember he picked UK over Alabama, Auburn, Miami, and others.
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The transfer portal closes Jan. 16.
Other UK players who have indicated they will transfer are:
LB Landyn Watson
EDGE Steven Soles Jr.
QB Stone Saunders
WR David Washington
WR Preston Bowman
CB Nasir Addison
DT Austin Ramsey
WR Troy Stellato
CB DJ Waller Jr.
4 Responses
Can’t blame Stein & his new staff for players going to the portal. Some of those players never got a chance to play or were very limited by the inept coaching staff who did not properly develop talent and did not play them enough to give them a real chance to adapt to college & make a big contribution.
UK major men’s sports are in a world of hurt. It will take time to rebuild competitive teams with players who are focused on UK and not just selfish interests game-wise & money.
Will Stein will be able to lift UK from the cellar after Stoops lost touch with the players & had incompetent coaches.
I waited & watched hoping for improvements during many decades & some years were promising. The lass promising years were painful.
Coach Pope needs to boot a few losers to the curb & crack the whip to get the attention of those who are staying. It’s almost too late and if nothing is done to trim the losers (partying the night before games & fighting over who sleeps with which slut) and get the attention of real players with genuine interest in UK.
Campbell not playing a snap being such a high recruit is a head scratcher. I could see if we were 6-0 and didn't want to take a chance I'm such a great year but when you suck your supposed to play everyone. Sometimes guys you think aren't ready just need a chance to show what they can do. Really Campbell should have never signed with Kentucky. He's a big defensive end. We played 3 down lineman. He's a guy that needs to play with 3 other down lineman. That is how you get pressure on the QB. I hate with a passion a 3 down lineman on defense. If your a NFL team with elite talent or a college team with elite talent it works too. Not at Kentucky. I'm so glad those days are gone. Waitint for the opposing offense to drive it's way slowly down the field then if we get the ball back and have to travel the whole field Stoops would run the ball 3 times and punt it back. That's a losers philosophy. That's playing to lose. How many times did we see Kentucky get the ball with like 1:35 seconds left in the second quarter and instead of trying to get some points we would run the ball up the middle 3 times and if the other team had there timeouts they would call one each time get the ball back and score with :50 seconds left. Stoops has a loser mentality. Which is good if your trying to gwt a program off the ground. Once a program is off the ground running you have to put the petal to the metal.
What's also crazy is that these guys are all 4* Kentucky boys. It's not like they are high 2* or low 3*. These are difference makers. If we could have kept all these kids imagine how great we would be in 2027-2028. The bottom is falling out. This should have happened after the 2024 year and 2025 would have been a reset. Then this year we would have started breaking through. I hope everyone doesn't expect Stein to take us to the playoff this year. If we make a bowl game we will be going in the right direction. If we miss a bowl game in 2026 then this could be the start of the end for Kentucky football. Stoops put all that work in for 13 years to get the program about the same as it was when he got here. If your trying to rebuild and see that your team is starting to decline you hit the reset button. Like I said we are about a year to late so it will take some time. Stein will probably need 2 recruiting classes to get us back relevant. Also if we get a good offensive line and some playmakers and a quarterback with some accuracy we have a chance to breakthrough this year. It all depends on the portal. The bad thing is if we don't do great in the portal you cans scratch this year. This year should be used to get everyone ready to make some noise in 2027. It's hard to get the right players and win in the portal unless your Indiana's coach who it took one portal to turn things around and two portals to completely dominate.
I can understand our football program struggling thats nothing new in 55 years of following them, but the basketball program is has been in the sliding to far long its like when Sutton took over never was the same until Rick Pitino took over.
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