2025 OFFICIAL KENTUCKY FOOTBALL YEARBOOK Presented By Bullish on BIG BLUE Touchdown Kentucky Inside: FOOTBALL 2520© 2025 The Coca-Cola Company. “Coca-Cola” is a registered trademark of The Coca-Cola Company. REALTASTE. ZERO SUGAR.ON OVER 1,000 ITEMS Scan to learn more. Official Grocer of UK Athletics LOWER PRICES2025 Kentucky Football Yearbook is published by the University of Kentucky Athletics Department. University of Kentucky Athletics Director: Mitch Barnhart Communications and Public Relations: Susan Lax, Matt May, Tony Neely, Cami Williams 410 West Vine Street Suite 150 Lexington, KY 40507 859-230-4372 UK Sports & Campus Marketing Powered by JMI Sports Brandon Baker, Curtis Burch, Brent Carney, Randy Carter, Annie Gillenwater, Devin Jones, Michelle Knezovic, Jensen Linder, Adair Mattingly, Seth Poteat, Kim Ramsay, Lance Reed, Chad Ruhl, Nadia Steinbicker, Saige Sutterlin, Brad Tucker Design & Publishing Managing Editor Jai Giffin Creative Director Jamie Barker Production Assistance Laura Doolittle, Lisa Roberts2025 Wildcats 18.............................Alex Afari Jr. 20............................Cutter Boley 22..........................Joshua Braun 24.................................Ty Bryant 26............................Jager Burton 28..........................Zach Calzada 30........................Dante Dowdell 32...........................Jalen Farmer 34...........................Fred Farrier II 35............................Sam Greene 36............................David Gusta 38......Mi’Quise Humphrey-Grace 39...........................JQ Hardaway 40.............................Josh Kattus 42.............................Aidan Laros 44...........................Kendrick Law 45...........................Jordan Lovett 46.........................Ja’Mori Maclin 47........................Seth McGowan 48................................Kam Olds 49........................... Shiyazh Pete 50.......................Daveren Rayner 51......................Willie Rodriguez 52.......................Kahlil Saunders 54......................Cats on the Map 55......................Kentucky Roster 57....................Returning Players 2025 Coaching Staff 70........Head Coach Mark Stoops 74..................Assistant Coaches This is Kentucky 78..........Joe Craft Training Facility 80..................Nutter Field House 84................Player Development 85..........Community Involvement 86.............University of Kentucky 87..................................Housing 88...............................Game Day 89...............................Nike Swag 90..................The Kentucky Road 92..............................Academics 94....Kentucky Football in the NFL 96.......................SEC Dominates 2025 Opponents 98.....................................Toledo 99..................................Ole Miss 100.....................Eastern Michigan 101........................South Carolina 102...................................Georgia 103......................................Texas 104...............................Tennessee 105....................................Auburn 106....................................Florida 107.......................Tennessee Tech 108...............................Vanderbilt 109................................Louisville The University 110..................UK Sports Network 112............President Eli Capilouto 114...................AD Mitch Barnhart History and Records 115.............Kentucky Bowl History 116..............Single-Game Records 117..........................Longest Plays On the Cover 2025 Kentucky Football Bullish on Big Blue Success on the offensive and defensive lines could be the key for a breakout season. 4 Touchdown Kentucky A look back at 25 memorable touchdowns in the past 25 seasons. 8 KENTUCKY FOOTBALL Contents n 2025 Kentucky Wildcats Football Yearbook @UKSportsNetwork n 34 n @UKFootball Bullish On BIG BLUE Success on the offensive and defensive lines could be the key for a breakout season By Tom Leach “Voice of the Wildcats” Bullish On BIG BLUE@UKSportsNetwork n 5 T hree words likely certain as the driving force for motivation for this year’s Ken- tucky football team —”four and eight.” Last year marked the Wildcats’ first sub-.500 record in a full season since 2015 and the players who return from that team are deter- mined to pull a plethora of newcomers along with them in an effort to change the script many have already written for them this fall. “No one wants to go through what we went through last year,” says junior safety Ty Bryant. “It was a bad season and the feeling we had walking off that field against Louis- ville (in a blowout loss), no one wants to feel that way again. “It’s just a ‘want to,’" Bryant said. “We can’t go out there with our heads hanging. I felt there was too much of that last year. Something’s going to happen, some unfor- tunate thing, a sudden change. We had too many guys moping last year and we just can’t have that this year.” Van Hiles, a former UK player from the 1990s who has evolved into a college foot- ball analyst, likes what he has seen thus far. “Last season is gone,” Hiles said. “We’ve made changes, we’ve flipped the roster and I think we’ve added more of the kinds of guys Coach Stoops wants. “It seems to me that the locker room is better (based on a flurry of recruiting com- mitments this summer),” Hiles continued. “They got talent in positions of needs and I think the product on the field is going to bet- ter than last year.” That kind of optimism is in short supply when it comes to the pigskin pundits look- ing at how Kentucky will fare in the SEC. The Cats were picked to finish 15th of 16 in the SEC race this fall at SEC media days but that should not come as a surprise for a team that finished 4-8 last season and underwent a massive roster turnover during the offsea- son. Of course, the same analysts whose forecasts for eight or nine wins last season were well off the mark could also be wrong in the other direction this season. Just look at the three teams in the Mark Stoops era at Kentucky that arguably ranked on the list of overachievement. None were highly-touted in the year following a disap- pointing season. The 2016 team that over- came an 0-2 start to give Stoops his first bowl trip followed a five-win team that suffered a disappointing loss at Vanderbilt that kept Kentucky out of the postseason. The 2017 team posted a 7-5 regular season record. They blew late leads in bids to knock off Flor- ida and Ole Miss and were then blown out by Louisville in the final game of the regular season. They did get a postseason bid to the Music City Bowl where they were defeated by Northwestern, 24-23. UK’s play during the second half of the 2017 season inspired little optimism looking toward the next season. In 2018, however, the Cats won 10 games for the first time since 1977 and finished the season by defeating Penn State, 27-24, in the VRBO Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Day. Later, the second 10-win team of the Stoops era (in 2021) came on the heels of a CoVID-shortened 2020 campaign that saw Kentucky posted a 4-6 regular season record in 10 games exclusively against SEC competition. The common denominator in that run of bowl games was offensive line play. As the Wildcats began to embrace then offensive line coach John Schlarman’s “Big Blue Wall” mentality, Kentucky was able to take the fight to opposing defenses. Between 2016 and the 2021 season, UK averaged nearly eight wins in five of those six seasons. The Wildcats ranked sixth or better in rushing offense in the SEC. Now, look at the past three seasons and take note that Kentucky’s rushing offense was 12th or worse in each of them. Between the 2018 and 2021 sea- sons, there were six offensive linemen from UK drafted into the NFL. There’s been no linemen drafted since 2021, however, free agent Eli Cox from last season’s UK squad could make an NFL roster as an undrafted free agent. In 2024, Kentucky had maybe its worst offensive line play since the early days of the Stoops era. Besides the rushing numbers, only Oklahoma lost more yards on tackles- for-loss and only Auburn had a lower TD rate on Red Zone opportunities (inside the oppo- nents’ 20-yard line). Strong-armed Zach Calzada is projected to enter the 2025 season as the starting quarterback.6 n @UKFootball During the off season, current offensive line coach Eric Wolford had the opportuni- ty to get players he wanted from the trans- fer portal in hopes of building his version of the Big Blue Wall for the 2025 season. In left tackle Shiyazh Pete and left guard Josh Braun, the Cats brought in two players who are mentioned in NFL draft talk for next spring and perhaps you could add senior Jager Burton to that NFL list if he adapts well to a transition to center. Burton’s position change means right guard Jalen Farmer is the only player with significant game expe- rience at Kentucky in the spot he’ll play this season. “The coaches bring the players in but it’s up to us to jell as an offensive line,” said Josh Braun, who was first recruited by Wolford in 2017 when the coach was then at South Carolina. “We have to be of one mind. The challenge is recreating a game scenario before we get into the season. In the SEC, games are won in the trenches and it’s up to the offensive line to set the standard for the team. We want to be an offensive line that leads and we don’t want to hold back our team in any way.” The offensive line depth is greater than in recent seasons. Stoops noted that as many as eight different players are capable of starting and one player to keep an eye on among the reserves is James Madison trans- fer Cameron Jones. An improved offensive line makes life easier for the rest of the offensive groups, most notably the quarterback. Strong- armed Zach Calzada starts his seventh sea- son of college football and is the projected starter. Redshirt freshman Cutter Boley showed flashes of big-time potential in the second half of the Texas game last season and has generated many positive reviews from those who saw open practices at Me- dia Day and Fan Day. Less than half of the total players on of- fense were with offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan at UK last season so it’s difficult to know much on that side of the ball until the season kicks off. Two transfers figure to lead the running back room in Dante Dowdell (from Nebraska) and Seth McGowan (New Mexico State) and at wideout, keeping Ja’Mori Maclin out of the transfer portal was the first step in replacing a group that is missing its top three pass catchers from last season. Alabama transfer Kendrick Law is a versatile player whom coach Hamdan has been quite bullish on in the lead up to the new season. Other players on offense to keep an eye on who could earn playing time are freshmen DJ Miller and former Boyle County High School star Montavin Quisen- berry, who was Kentucky’s “Mr. Football” award winner. On the defensive side of the ball, UK Dante Dowdell (above) is expected to lead UK's rushing attack, while Ja'Mori Maclin (below) will return this season as one of the Wildcats featured wide receivers.@UKSportsNetwork n 7 finished 10th last season in total defense. It was the first time the Wildcats ranked in the bottom half of the SEC in that stat since 2017 when they finished 15th. If the key to offensive improvement is the line, the same can be said for the Kentucky defense. De- fensive coordinator Brad White is particular- ly upbeat about a group of players preparing for their second years. “They were what we expected when we signed that class,” White said. “Now they’ve put time in the weight room, the game is slowing down and now they believe ‘I can be the best version of myself’.” There are a few familiar names among the secondary and inside linebacker po- sitions that include Alex Afari, Jr., who led the Cats in tackles-for-loss last year. How- ever, Kentucky will look for help from the transfer portal for the defensive line and on the edges. UK was hit hard by injuries on its defensive front last season but there are some promising newcomers on the field this season, with David Gusta, a transfer from Washington State, drawing effusive praise from his head coach. “Man can he move,” said head coach Mark Stoops. “This offseason, he did 225 (pounds) 38 times,” Stoops continued as he referred to the standard bench press test for defensive linemen at the NFL Combine each year. “He is physically what you want. Very twitchy and very disruptive inside.” Kentucky will need to increase its abil- ity to penetrate opposing offensive lines and disrupt its backfield this fall. Last sea- son, the Wildcats finishing next-to-last in sacks, 12th in tackles-for-loss and 11th in forcing turnovers. Under White, the Wild- cats’ defense finished in the top four in total defense in the SEC for five years in a row from 2018-22 so there’s reason to think Kentucky’s defense can bounce back from last season's performance and execute to the level of the SEC's top defense's this season. Another factor that could help Kentucky achieve at a level above expectations is punting. In 1999, the year after Tim Couch and company moved on from the program, the Wildcats made it to a second straight bowl game and part of the formula was having a punter who performed at an All- SEC level in Andy Smith. He led the league in net punting and ranked fourth nationally and this year’s UK team has a punter, Aidan Laros, who possesses an NFL-caliber leg as well. Stoops raved about the leg strength of placekicker Jacob Kauwe last year but the consistency of Alex Raynor kept the fresh- man on the bench. Now, Kauwe figures to get his chance but he must show that he can match accuracy with that pop in his right leg. Jalen Farmer (above) is UK's only returning offensive lineman who has game experience at his position. Alex Afari, Jr. (below), who led the Cats in tackles-for-loss last season , will anchor the linebacking corps.Next >