The Louisville Cardinals beat the Kentucky Wildcats 41-14 during the Governor’s Cup at Kroger Field in Lexington, Ky., on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. BY HERALD-LEADER PHOTO STAFF READ MORE Game day: Louisville 41, Kentucky 14 Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Louisville football game at Kroger Field. EXPAND ALL The Kentucky football team’s disappointing 2024 season is finished. While Mark Stoops and his staff have been planning for an offseason roster makeover for months, the 41-14 loss to Louisville on Saturday officially sends the Wildcats into offseason mode following the end of their eight-year bowl streak.
There is just no scenario where UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart would pull the trigger on the program’s all-time winningest coach that quickly. Stoops has not been shy about acknowledging the exhaustion that comes with all the non-coaching responsibilities in his job since the advent of the transfer portal and NIL endorsements, though. Those comments and the fact that he is now a year older than his brother Bob Stoops was when he retired from Oklahoma led to persistent rumors throughout the fall that Stoops might consider walking away this winter, but he has been adamant in recent weeks there is no chance of that. Stoops is set to make $9 million per year through the 2030 season.
“Regardless of what anybody is saying about my future, I am busting my ass trying to win out and really play well down the stretch,” Stoops said prior to UK’s game at Texas. “But I have to really — it gives me a lot of juice and a lot of energy just working on the pieces for the future as well because you kind of have to do that. Things happen so fast right now with the end of the year, with the portal and with signing day, if you’re not prepared you’re in big trouble.” Unless Stoops follows John Calipari’s lead in taking a different job for less money, focus will shift to changes within his staff. Despite consistent struggles from the UK offense throughout the season, Stoops confirmed after the loss at Texas last week that he expects coordinator Bush Hamdan to return. That would mean Kentucky would have the same play-caller for consecutive seasons for the first time since 2020. With freshman Cutter Boley emerging at quarterback down the stretch, Stoops and Hamdan will hope that continuity leads to better results in 2025. “I always think just from the standpoint of the verbiage, the offense, the staff being together, you’re no longer working on year one type things,” Hamdan said. “You’re working on year two, year three.
Previous experiences come into play, and you’re able to move faster and work on next level projects.” After years of turnover on the offensive staff and continuity on defense, this might be the year those scripts flip. Defensive coordinator Brad White has been tied to the coordinator opening at Florida State in recent weeks. After seven years in Lexington, six of them as coordinator, White might decide this is the year to make a move, especially if he has aspirations of one day being a head coach. If White leaves, the most likely outcome would be Stoops promoting from within to fill the coordinator job, as he has done each time he hired a defensive coordinator during his UK tenure.
Defensive backs coach Chris Collins was promoted to co-defensive coordinator before the season and could be in line for another promotion. Inside linebackers coach Mike Stoops, Mark’s older brother, has extensive Power Four coordinator experience and previously worked as head coach at Arizona. SAY GOODBYE TO THESE WILDCATS There are nine scholarship starters and two key backups guaranteed to move on as they exhausted their eligibility this season. On offense, UK must replace center Eli Cox, left tackle Marques Cox, right tackle Gerald Mincey and running back Demie Sumo-Karngbaye. On defense, linemen Tre’vonn Rybka and Octavious Oxendine, linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson, outside linebacker J.J. Weaver and safeties Zion Childress and Kristian Story have played their final game. UK must also replace kicker Alex Raynor, one of three finalists for the Lou Groza Award, which goes to college football’s best kicker.
The departures on UK’s roster will not stop there, though. COVID YEARS IN PLAY ONE LAST TIME Other than players that end up receiving medical waivers for extra years of eligibility, this will be the last offseason that the waiver granted all players on rosters during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 to use an extra year to exhaust their normal four-in-five playing clock comes into play. Seven scholarship players from the high school 2020 class who redshirted at some point from 2021 to 2024 remain on the roster and can use the COVID waiver to return to college in 2025: running back Chip Trayanum, wide receiver Ja’Mori Maclin, offensive tackle Courtland Ford, defensive linemen Josaih Hayes and Darrion Henry-Young and linebackers D’Eryk Jackson and Daveren Rayner. First, those players will need to decide if they want to keep playing college football. Among that group Jackson was the biggest contributor for UK this season and also looks like the least likely to come back as Stoops recently suggested he still expected Jackson to start his professional career even after missing the last three games of the season with an injury.
Hayes returned from an injury to contribute down the stretch in what ended up being a redshirt season. His return would be a big boost for UK’s defensive line. Even if these players elect to keep playing college football, they might not do so at Kentucky. Trayanum was a much-hyped transfer addition last winter from Ohio State but barely played due to injuries and younger players taking on featured roles down the stretch. Despite totaling 1,000 receiving yards at North Texas last season, Maclin was an afterthought in the offensive game plan for much of the year before emerging in the final month. Kentucky could use both of them next season, but they might have clearer paths to featured roles elsewhere. EXPECT MULTIPLE EARLY ENTRIES TO THE NFL DRAFT Junior defensive lineman Deone Walker did not enjoy the breakout season many hoped for when he was projected as a first-round draft pick in the summer, but there is still no reason to expect him to return to UK next year.
The same can be said of junior cornerback Maxwell Hairston, who was still ranked as a top-50 prospect in The Athletic’s midseason draft ranking despite missing a chunk of the season with a health issue. The other NFL draft decisions to watch will come from wide receivers Barion Brown and Dane Key. While Brown has done little to prove he is ready to play receiver in the NFL, he could draw interest as a kickoff return specialist and has long been expected to leave college when first eligible. Key enjoyed a breakout season in 2024 that could put him on draft boards.
There are no other obvious underclassmen considered likely NFL draft picks on the roster, but that has not always stopped Kentucky players from starting their professional careers in recent years. Further departures cannot be ruled out until the January deadline to enter the draft. TRANSFER PORTAL WORKS BOTH WAYS Stoops has not been shy about his plan to add a large transfer portal class in an effort to spark a quick turnaround for 2025, but he must first worry about keeping his best players on the roster. As usual, Kentucky will lose a host of players buried on the depth chart who are looking to move to smaller schools where they can play more regularly. Since the SEC elected to stay at an 85-scholarship limit in 2025, Kentucky will need attrition from that group to open sports for high school and portal additions. Since the advent of the transfer portal, Stoops and company have had great success keeping key players — they’ve lost just one starter — but do not be surprised if that trend ends this winter. “We’ve been fortunate,” Stoops said this week. “That’s not to say it’s always going to stay that way. Whatever it is, nobody needs to panic.
We have an opportunity to get this roster fixed, and work hard, and that’s my plan — to work hard, to get the pieces in place. I’ve worked hard to get resources in place, and I have to do that. We have to get it done.” Almost any exciting young talent on UK’s roster could receive back channel transfer interest from traditional powers. If either Key or Brown turns down the NFL draft, they will surely consider their transfer options after a year where Kentucky’s passing game struggled mightily.
Punter Wilson Berry and tight end Jordan Dingle, who entered the portal last season only to return to UK, both participated in Senior Day on Saturday despite having eligibility remaining, signaling they may have played their final games at UK. Kentucky quarterback Cutter Boley (8) takes the field against Louisville in his first start for the Wildcats. David Rearic WHAT HAPPENS AT QUARTERBACK? Boley being named the starter for the Louisville game essentially guarantees departures from UK’s quarterback room. Assuming UK can keep Boley on its roster, the question of who backs him up in 2025 is a major one. Brock Vandagriff and Gavin Wimsatt, who joined the team as transfers from Georgia and Rutgers last offseason, only have one year of eligibility left. If they want to continue playing college football, it would be no surprise for them to use that year elsewhere rather than risk spending it as the backup to a redshirt freshman starter.
Fourth-string quarterback Beau Allen, a Lexington Catholic graduate who returned to UK as a walk-on this season, has one season of eligibility left but participated in Senior Day on Saturday. UK has two quarterbacks committed in the high school class, but even if both Stone Saunders and Brennen Ward make it to campus, the staff will not want to go into 2025 with no experienced depth behind Boley. That means if Vandagriff, Wimsatt and Allen all leave, a transfer quarterback will be needed for depth behind Boley at the least and perhaps as legitimate competition for the starting job. GET READY FOR ANOTHER WINTER OF TRANSFER HYPE Kentucky fans could be forgiven for approaching the upcoming transfer portal window, which officially opens Dec. 9, with skepticism after most of the much-hyped 2024 portal class failed to live up to expectations, but the Wildcats’ best hope for a quick turnaround remains identifying and landing the right transfers. With so many holes on the two-deep depth chart before even considering positions with returning starters that might need upgrades, Stoops probably needs to add his biggest transfer class yet. The first area of focus will be on the offensive line. “We need some depth at center,” Stoops said Monday.
“Obviously losing Eli is a big piece of it. He has been really steady for us. “It is no mystery that we need some help at tackle. Jager (Burton), Jalen (Farmer), Aba (Selm) and Dylan (Ray) are all guys that have played good football for us inside. We need to go get some help at tackle, for sure.” Portal needs could change based on who enters the draft or transfers elsewhere, but wide receiver, defensive line, edge rusher, inside linebacker and cornerback all look like areas of need. High school signing day was moved to the first Wednesday of December this season, so Stoops should at least have an idea of where he can get help from that class in the next week. Four-star Ohio prep running back Marquise Davis is a name to watch before Wednesday after he reportedly took a visit to Missouri this weekend. If Davis does not sign with UK, running back might join the list of positions needing transfer help.