There’s plenty of good news and bad news from Kentucky Tuesday practice, including Stephen Johnson’s status, the offensive line situation and more.
For starters, Stephen Johnson is fine, according to Eddie Gran. A video shared be the team on Monday showed Johnson in a walking boot in the background, but Gran says there’s no need for concern.
“It was just a boot. Just a boot,” Gran said, also saying that Johnson would practice Wednesday.
As for the left tackle position, they’re trying to work it out after Cole Mosier’s career-ending injury. 5-star recruit Landon Young will have to step in now, but who’s behind him?
Well there’s a few options, according to Gran. There’s starting right tackle Kyle Meadows, George Asafo-Adjei and Naasir Watkins. Gran had praise for Watkins, a 6’5”, 300-lb freshman.
“Athletically, you can see his athleticism, Gran said. “He’s smart, and boy he’s battling through just the hits those big o-linemen take every day. Going half-line run, one-team run, then we go to team. They’re getting banged around a lot. I love where he’s at right now. He’s got a chance. He really does.”
For some good news, there are some freshmen causing position battles thus far. Gran said several freshman wide receivers — Clevan Thomas, Isaiah Epps, Josh Ali and Lynn Bowden — may get to travel to Southern Miss for the first game of the season with how well they’re performing in camp.
And there’s a bit of a battle at running back, too. AJ Rose, Sihiem King and Benny Snell are all battling, and there’s no separation behind Snell.
“This will be a big week for them,” Gran said of the backs. “I wasn’t excited about our running back play in this last scrimmage. They know that. They came out Monday and ran like grown men. We can’t dance. We can’t play, we’ve gotta know the situation and we didn’t do that very well on Saturday. But I promise you the last two days they’ve been pretty good.”
Here are video recaps of what Gran had to say, as well as comments from John Schlarman and Landon Young, courtesy of UK Athletics: