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Kentucky is hoping Marques Cox is going to be a huge problem-solver for last year’s offensive line issues if he opens the 2023 season as the starting left tackle as expected after transferring from Northern Illinois in January.
However, Cox is already showing he can be a valuable recruiter because of former Northern Illinois teammate Daveren Rayner, an inside linebacker.
Cox was Rayner’s host on his official visit to Northern Illinois before he committed and was again at Kentucky this weekend when he committed to the Wildcats.
Rayner has two more years of eligibility and had been contacted by Florida State, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and others along with UK after putting his name in the transfer portal April 28th.
He started five games in 2020 as a true freshman and had 27 tackles. He started the first four games in 2021 before being injured and finishing with 29 tackles. Last season he had 71 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 quarterback sacks in eight games to give him 126 tackles in 20 career games
Rayner had 10 tackles and one sack in a loss at Kentucky last season and obviously impressed the Kentucky coaches.
Kentucky loses inside linebacker DeAndre Square and Jacquez Jones of last year’s team. Both recently signed NFL free agent contracts.
Kentucky returns D’Eryk Jackson and Trevin Wallace at inside linebackers and Cats Illustrated publisher Justin Rowland noted they each played more snaps at inside linebacker than Jones and Square last season. However, Kentucky lacks depth at inside linebacker and Rayner could be a big help there.
Kentucky has also been looking to reconstruct the Big Blue Wall and added its fifth offensive lineman from the transfer portal Saturday when West Virginia’s Dylan Ray announced he was coming to Kentucky.
The 6-5, 290-pound Ray is from Indiana but his father, John, was a former offensive lineman at West Virginia who went on to play professionally. Ray redshirted in 2021 and then was in for just 32 total snaps in 2022.
Kentucky lost offensive lineman John Young, Kiyaunta Goodwin, David Wohlabaugh and Deondre Buford to the transfer portal and has now added Cox, Ray, Courtland Ford of USC, Tanner Bowles of Alabama and Ben Christman of Ohio State.
