Baseball season is getting cranked up, the SEC Tournament picture is coming into focus, and March Madness is on the horizon. But given Kentucky’s recent success on the gridiron, we absolutely cannot forget that the spring Blue-White Game will be here before we know it.
On the eve of spring practice, coach Mark Stoops met with the media to preview his team’s spring workouts and talk about the roster heading into March. Stoops is very optimistic about this group and continuing to improve on recent success, and he had some great things to say about a few individual performers as well.
“He’s a difference-maker,” Stoops said of LSU transfer cornerback Kelvin Joseph. “He’s physical. The first thing that pops out at you is he’s a big kid. He’s like some of the corners we’ve been used to having.”
Joseph was the No. 5 safety, and No. 42 overall player in the 2018 class according to the 247Sports composite rankings. After leaving LSU and sitting out for an entire season, it sounds like he is ready to make an immediate impact on the field for the Wildcats.
Stoops also had great things to say about junior defender Joshua Paschal, who is expected to make a big jump this year and become a major impact player in Kentucky’s defense.
“This is the best he’s been in a few years because of the injury and the cancer and the surgeries on his foot and all of those things. This is the best he’s looked,” Stoops said of Paschal. “He’s had a great winter. He’s feeling good and moving around really good and really comfortable. I’m excited for him.”
Paschal had a great freshmen season before being diagnosed with cancer. The tumor was on the his foot and Paschal has continued to recover from the procedures and cancer itself, even after returning to regular practice and games.
In addition, Stoops revealed that Paschal will be back on the defensive line after spending time at outside linebacker last season.
“The great thing about Josh is he’s been very versatile, but he’s also so unselfish,” said Stoops. “He knew a year ago, and even going back two years because we had some depth inside and not as much outside, he wanted to help the team. Now he realizes there’s some depth outside and we need some impact players inside.
Despite losing Lynn Bowden to the NFL, the Kentucky Wildcats have lots of talent and experience coming back for next season. This spring, we could get a taste of what this team will look like in a normal offensive set and all the weapons in place to have a huge season.