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The hype surrounding Kentucky Wildcats wide receiver turned flex tight end Izayah Cummings continues to build.
Cummings, a Louisville native and sophomore, did not make a single catch for the Wildcats last season, despite playing nine games. Most of it was on special teams with a limited role at wide receiver.
However, under new offensive coordinator Liam Coen, the Wildcats have moved the 6-foot-3 to tight end and the move appears as if it’s set to make a major impact on Kentucky’s offense.
With Keaton Upshaw’s health in question, Cummings has a chance to slide right in with Brandon Bates and Justin Rigg at tight end, which could make the Wildcats offense even more explosive if he lives up to the comparison he drew from teammate and wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson.
“Izayah looks really good out here,” Robinson told the media in a post-practice interview Saturday. “I told him he looks like Kyle Pitts.”
Yes, that Kyle Pitts. The one from the Florida Gators who made 43 catches for 770 yards for 12 touchdowns last season and was drafted fourth overall by the Atlanta Falcons in April’s NFL Draft.
While he did not offer a comparison, UK head coach Mark Stoops also praised Cummings Saturday, saying, “Here’s a young man that always has a great attitude, works, does everything and I think he’s a difference-maker. He’s just so natural. It’s so friendly to the quarterbacks, somebody that’s that athletic with that kind of catch radius and is so smooth. Those big guys sometimes are stiffer than you think. You have a big guy that’s that athletic. It makes a big difference.”
Expectations are now sky-high for the sophomore that has yet to record his first career college catch but per his head coach and star teammate, he appears ready to meet them.