Eddie Gran gives injury update on Drew Barker

With spring football underway, one of the big storylines with Kentucky Football is the health of Drew Barker.

Barker entered 2016 as Kentucky’s starting quarterback, but a back injury led to him missing all but three games. That allowed Stephen Johnson to take hold of the starting gig, which he should hang onto this year.

But Barker’s health is a still significant since he’s projected to be the backup this coming season, and depending on if he gets a medical redshirt, he could be in line to start in 2018 and 2019.

For now, all Barker is working on is getting healthy, which is sounds like he’s doing in spring ball. After Tuesday’s practice session, offensive coordinator Eddie Gran said Barker was getting practice reps, a great sign that he’s close to being fully healthy.

“Yeah, he came in and got some reps. Got some reps in team, got some reps in 1-on-1s,” said Gran. “He was kinda just put in there at periodic times, not really getting into rhythm, just wanting to see where he’s at and how he feels after this. We’ll see how it is and we’ll keep progressing him as we go. But he got more reps than he’s had the last three practices before he came back.”

Barker may not be the starting quarterback this year, but he still is very important to this team going forward. Let’s just hope he gets back to full health and can play like the guy we saw in the first half vs Southern Miss last season.