Kentucky Wildcats Football

Thursday Headlines: New Offensive Playmakers Edition

Kentucky’s offense could see several new faces become impact players early on this season.

By Zac Oakes@ZacOakes Jul 21, 2022, 6:40am EDT

Last year, Kentucky’s passing offense was heavily reliant on the now-departed Wan’Dale Robinson and Josh Ali.

With those departures, it’s a wide-open race for wide receivers to step up and become impact players, and it seems like some of the new faces on the offensive side of the ball could be the ones stepping up early on.

Guys like Jordan Anthony, Barion Brown, and Brandon White arrived to campus early in the summer, and transfer running back Ramon Jefferson and Tennessee transfer Dee Beckwith are also on campus.

Those new faces expect to be key playmakers on the Kentucky offense.

Mark Stoops spoke about a few of those new additions at SEC Media Days.

“Jordan, we’re really proud of him,” Stoops said of Anthony, whose also a national track champion, while speaking to local media at SEC Media Days. “Then you’ve got Brandon White, whose fast as heck and nobody talks about him because you have Jordan there who has world-class speed.

“We needed some speed and those guys can certainly blow the top off. We’re excited to work with those guys and we’ll see what they can do.”

As for Jefferson and Beckwith, their roles should expect to clarify a little more as the status of running back Chris Rodriguez hopefully becomes clearer in the near future.

Stoops did note that Beckwith will play on offense, an important note since Beckwith played some safety and linebacker at Tennessee.

But Stoops said he feels confident in how new offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello will utilize the new weapons.

“I think each of them have their own things that they’re good at and how we can utilize them. Coach Scangarello does a really good job of seeing what our strengths and what guys’ strengths are to put them in the right position to succeed.”

Those players, along with Dane Key, who impressed a lot of people in the spring and is considered to be a strong candidate for a starting position come fall, make up a strong group of young offensive weapons that will form a strong foundation for the Kentucky offense.

Tweet of the Day

Mark Stoops isn’t worried about where the “experts” are picking Kentucky to finish in the SEC. #BBN pic.twitter.com/MsHv1Qxgmw
— Nick Roush (@RoushKSR) July 20, 2022