On Wednesday, the media had a chance to talk to six out of the seven new transfers that transferred to Kentucky during winter break, with the exception being Jantzen Dunn (Ohio State). Each transfer is expected to come in and play significant roles, as they fill roster gaps.
With the influx of veteran talent to go alongside the young weapons that Kentucky displayed last season, the goal is to improve on an underwhelming 2022 season.
Let’s briefly look at what each player had to say in their introductory press conferences.
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Devin Leary
Committing to Kentucky in mid-December, Devin Leary has only been on campus for three weeks and is still rehabbing from his surgery for a torn pectoral muscle he suffered back in October. However, he is still trying to make an early impact on his new team.
“Really just being able to get around the guys and really just, you know, prove to them through my hard work, prove to them, you know, I’m eager to be here,” Devin Leary says during a media interview.
“I am very happy to be here, but at the same time, you know, it’s an honor and privilege to be here. I need to prove to them that I’m going to put in the work that it takes, you know, a lot of time and that I take it very serious, but at the same time it’s grabbing those guys on the side and, you know, diving into the playbook, doing extra film, and just really building that camaraderie, like right now.”
Spring practice starts in about a month and a half, so we will see if Leary will be fully healthy to go for spring ball, if not he should be fully healthy to start off the season in 2023.
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Ray Davis
In Liam Coen’s ‘re-introductory’ press conference, he talked about how important Chris Rodriguez and his ability to guarantee positive yardage has been to Kentucky. Now graduated, Coen and the program had to find another high talent back, which they found in the transfer portal.
Coming from Vanderbilt, new running back Ray Davis was tabbed as a four-star transfer and one of the best running backs in the portal. Kentucky will be Davis’ third stop in college football as he played at Temple University his freshman and sophomore years and most recently at the University of Vanderbilt for his junior and senior years.
One reason why Davis committed to Kentucky is he thinks UK was missing a few pieces towards the end of the year, that he thinks he can help with and get the Cats’ to compete in the SEC Championship
“Offensively, just knowing that they were missing just a few pieces once the season ended and I felt that, you know, if I come in and try to earn my spot, earn those reps, and try to get the starting job. I think I could help out the team and get us through that threshold of potentially competing for an SEC Championship,” Ray Davis says during a media interview.
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Tanner Bowles
Tanner Bowles was one of two offensive tackles that Kentucky landed in the transfer portal. Bowles, who is from Glasgow (KY), recently transferred from the University of Alabama to Lexington. In four seasons with the Crimson Tide (including a redshirt season), Bowles never became a starter, but appeared in all 12 games this season for one of the best offensive lines in the SEC.
“There’s a point in time, where you can lead with your words, but before that, you have to lead with your actions, so I think while I’m here right now, I don’t know when the time would be if I, you know, had a chance to lead with my words, but for now I am focused on, you know, just leading my actions, doing the little things right,” Tanner Bowles says during a media interview.
Marques Cox
Marques Cox was the second offensive tackle that Kentucky added from the transfer portal, coming from Northern Illinois University as a redshirt junior. Cox, like Devin Leary, suffered a season-ending foot injury, four games into the season when NIU faced off against UK.
As a proven veteran, Cox knows that the offensive line will have to improve this season, and he will bear much of that load. If they can succeed, Kentucky will be more capable of using their offensive weapons.
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“Just me and Tanner (Bowles) helping improve the offensive line and offense so they got weapons,” Marques Cox says during a media interview. “We got key players to do so, so it is just fixing everything.”
Keeshawn Silver
Now to the defensive side of the ball. One of Kentucky’s latest additions from the transfer portal was defensive tackle, Keeshawn Silver from North Carolina. Ranked as a five-star recruit in the 2021 class, the talent is there, but he could never get to a healthy playing weight at North Carolina.
One reason why Kentucky added him was due to Justin Rogers’s transferring to Auburn, leaving UK in need of another defensive lineman, which is where Silver comes in. Since arriving to campus, he feels like he has been able to build some great chemistry with his teammates.
“We talk daily, it’s really like the same things at Chapel Hill,” Keeshawn Silver says during a media interview. “I mean the guys, we bond together, have a good time, they like to have fun, I like to have fun.”
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JQ Hardaway
Finally, the last transfer that was interviewed was defensive back, JQ Hardaway, coming from Cincinnati. A native of Columbus, Georgia, Hardaway is “happy” to be in the SEC, a conference many poked fun at him for not joining out of high school.
The SEC is the highest level of football in the country, but Hardaway believes that he belongs and is confident in his skill set.
“I’m just a ballplayer, man, I feel like I am very confident in myself,” JQ Hardaway says during a media interview. “I like to have fun, I got kind of a swagger on the field, I would say. I’m just very comfortable, I feel like I can be myself, I don’t have to be anyone. I just kind of let my talent speak for itself.”
Over the last four seasons, Kentucky has sent three transfer corners to the NFL – Lonnie Johnson (Garden City CC), Kelvin Joseph (LSU), and Brandin Echols (Northwest Mississippi CC) – and Hardaway committed to Kentucky with that in mind. Will he be the next?
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Kentucky added some talented transfers this off-season and it will be interesting to see how they will have an impact on the team. Several questions should be answered over spring football, and hopefully, this group can help lead Kentucky to a better record in 2023.
On Monday, Sept. 29, Rivals recruiting analyst Steve Wiltfong predicted that six-foot-five defensive lineman Kellan Hall is favored to commit to Kentucky.
Where should 2028 Five-Star DL Kellan Hall go 🤔?⁰ The 6’5 270 DL totaled 53 tackles, 17.5 TFL, and 6.5 sacks through 11 games in 2025
The top-five recruit in the class of 2028 attends Louisville Christian Academy and holds offers from some of the top programs in America, including Ohio State, Georgia, Texas, Oregon, Michigan, Notre Dame and Oklahoma. He is the No.1 ranked defense tackle in the country.
Will Stein may hold off some exceptional college football programs for this 2028 recruit.
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Kentucky Football’s early-season success under Stein has drawn major attention, building momentum and attracting high-profile recruits such as well. Wiltfong says his sources with knowledge of recruitment, “indicate that the Wildcats are running at the top for Hall.”
He also talked about why Kentucky is the team to beat in Hall’s recruitment process.
“From the relationship with Coach Will Stein and his staff…Big Blue Nation has put itself in a great position to ultimately sign the defensive lineman.”
Stein’s behind-the-scenes efforts could land enough recruits to transform the football program over the next few seasons. Hall still has two years until college, but a top-five recruit joining would completely change how the SEC views Kentucky.
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Hall is one of the few local recruits who is viewed this highly, and the Wildcats are making huge breakthroughs. Will we see Hall in a Kentucky jersey sometime soon?
Kentucky fans are still upset with how the Wildcats played in the second half against No. 12 Alabama on Saturday, Sept. 12, and rightfully so.
Let’s rewind to the first half to start things off, because it was a different story. Coach Will Stein’s squad came out of the gate swinging, starting with a pick-six by defensive lineman Mi’Quise Humphrey-Grace to get the Cats on the scoreboard.
Kentucky stayed competitive throughout the first 30 minutes, even leading the Crimson Tide 17-13 at the break.
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Whatever changes Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer made in the locker room worked to perfection – the Tide racked up 150 total rushing yards in the second half and held the Wildcats to just 62 total yards in the half, dominating their way to a 45-17 victory.
It was a tough result for Wildcats fans across the country, as there was a true belief that the upset was possible. But at the end of the day, there is still a positive to take away from the game; Kroger Field was absolutely electric.
Many fans have said across social media that Kroger Field was the loudest it has been in years. The stripe-out was executed perfectly, and the crowd’s reaction to Humphrey-Grace’s pick-six ranks among the loudest pops in history. The roof would have blown off if there were one.
Even better, the recruits saw how the atmosphere can be when there is a strong product on the field that the fans can get behind. Among the high school recruits visiting was in-state five-star defensive lineman Kellan Hall of Christian Academy of Louisville. The Wildcats failed to get the win, but the environment may have moved the needle on landing Hall.
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Hall had some words to share regarding his visit to Lexington via Steve Wiltfong from On3Sports, calling his time in Lexington “amazing.” Another recruit, 2028 four-star Quinn Weber from New Jersey, said in a quote via Quinn Weber on X that he “had a blast” and was impressed with the atmosphere inside Kroger Field.
Stein has stated from the first day he got to Lexington that building a winning culture is his number one priority. Landing a highly coveted in-state recruit with talent like Hall will speed up the process of becoming a winning program.
If Stein can land Hall, it would be Kentucky’s first five-star commit since 2021, when Kiyaunta Goodwin announced he was going to come play for Mark Stoops.
Stein and the Wildcats have another chance to upset a top-ten team, No. 9 Texas A&M, on Saturday, Sept. 9 at College Station. The game is set for kickoff at 3:30 p.m. ET and will air live for the Big Blue Nation on ESPN.
Media Day was held for No. 18 Kentucky Baseball on Tuesday, Feb. 3, and head coach Nick Mingione was highly optimistic for his 10th Wildcats team and their developments throughout the offseason.
The 2x SEC Coach of the Year discussed managing the tough ask of acquiring a top 25 recruiting class and a top 10 portal class, his pride and appreciation for BBN – as he glosses over some of the other successful head coaches in Lexington and MLB prospect Tyler Bell improving as a player more than anybody thought he would.
One of the bigger topics that came around during Mingione’s press conference was about incoming freshman Matt Ponatoski, a two-sport star from Archbishop Moeller in Cincinnati, OH, who was praised heavily as both a quarterback, a pitcher, and a hitter during his recruiting stages.
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You rarely see young athletes succeed in multiple sports the way Ponatoski did, but as he picked up Ohio’s Gatorade Player of the Year in both football and baseball during his junior year, Kentucky took the chance and brought him in under two coaches.
It’s hard enough for a young athlete coming into college to accept the pressure of two SEC-team workloads, but what about the coaches who have to work with him?
Fortunately, Mingione and the newly hired Will Stein (who recruited Ponatoski during his time at Oregon) look to be working together diligently to make sure the dual prospect succeeds in every position he plays.
“You just have to take your daddy goggles off or your mommy goggles off and just ask some people that you trust,” Mingione said. “The game of baseball and football has not told Matt Ponatoski to stop playing one or the other.”
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Kentucky opens its season with three games in three days at UNC Greensboro. The first matchup is stamped for Friday, Feb. 13 at 4:00 p.m. ET.
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