Athlon Sports does not think highly of Terry Wilson

Terry Wilson was the starting quarterback for the Kentucky Wildcats in his first season of college football, helping the team win 10 games for just the second time in the last 40 years.

His numbers were decidedly average, but he had Benny Snell in the backfield and Josh Allen on defense. Wilson didn’t need to put up gaudy statistics, he just needed to be good enough.

And he did just that.

Now, Terry “Touchdown” is looking to have a breakout year. He put together an excellent spring game performance, once again outperforming Gunnar Hoak, and looks to build on his first season.

Winning 10 games in the SEC, while playing the most important position on the field, is nothing short of impressive. However, not everyone is as optimistic about Wilson’s game moving forward.

Athlon Sports recently ranked the starting quarterbacks in the SEC and they didn’t seem to think very highly of Wilson. The dual-threat QB came in at No. 12 out of 14 QBs in the conference.

12. Terry Wilson, Kentucky

With Benny Snell off to the NFL, Kentucky’s offense needs more out of Wilson to match last year’s 10 victories. The Oklahoma native started his career at Oregon but transferred to the junior college level for the 2017 season. After a prolific year at Garden City Community College, Wilson won the starting job for the Wildcats prior to the 2018 opener. He started all 13 games for coach Mark Stoops and threw for 1,889 yards and 11 touchdowns to eight picks. Wilson’s ability to make plays with his legs added another dimension for the Wildcats, as he finished the year with 547 yards and four scores on the ground. The junior isn’t short on talent and should show progress as a passer in his second stint through the SEC. However, will that be enough to spark an offense that averaged only 18.3 points in conference games last season?

Outside the state of Kentucky, I can understand a bit of skepticism revolving around Wilson. Yes, he was the starting QB for a team that won 10 games, but he wasn’t asked to do much.

However, the site ranked Tennessee’s Jarrett Guarantano, Ole Miss’ Matt Corral (who?), and Auburn’s Joey Gatewood all ahead of Wilson.

Guarantano had nearly identical stats to Wilson, except his completion percentage was quite a bit lower. Corral has thrown 22 passes in four career games. And the most surprising of them all, Gatewood has one pass attempt in his career, an incompletion.

Call me crazy, but I think Terry needs a little bit more respect. Just another opportunity to prove everyone wrong about Kentucky football.