Wednesday Headlines: Football Wildcats Honored Edition

Kentucky’s freshman class had an impressive season.

By John Morgan Francis@MonJorgan Dec 7, 2022, 6:40am EST

It’s not every season or certainly every team that has a significant amount of freshmen contribute to their football team. With the rules in place that require football players to remain in college longer than basketball players, college football tends to be a “grown man” sport and heavily impacted by older players with more maturity and stronger bodies.

If you watched Kentucky football this season, they didn’t exactly knock your socks off with heroic wins or massive blowouts. In fact, they had more than enough of disappointing games that led to a 7-5 regular season record instead of the 9-3, 10-2 or even 11-1 finish some fans had hoped for.

However, one bright spot of the entire season was the unusual production from Kentucky’s freshman class. Barion Brown, Dane Key, Deon Walker, Jordan Dingle and Jordan Lovett all received College Football News Freshman All-America Honors.

A lot of the preseason hype was centered around big-time recruit Kiyaunta Goodwin. And while he could very well end up being a star, the Wildcats have clearly found several other stars, too.

In addition to the success of Kentucky’s young players, Keidron Smith — a senior transfer from Ole Miss — was voted All-SEC Second Team by the conference’s coaches.