Don't know why any defensive player would commit to Riley. The guy doesn't care 2 damns about defense, no way Nicholson will be prepared for the NFL.
UK football and the December transfer portal
- Thread starter Rembrandt90
- Start date
As to what Nicholson sees in SoCal or Riley, IDK. But Nicholson had a great opportunity to sign with UK coming out of juco in the past and chose MS St instead. Then, again, he was handed a UK scholarship on a silver platter this year but just couldn't pull the trigger. Something hasn't clicked between Nicholson and Coach Collins. Perhaps for the better. in the long run. Nicholson is athletic and has excellent length, but lacks some tools for the position and isn't the quickest.
We have Hairston, Hardaway, Stuart, Addison, and Nichols at CB. Maybe Scott, if he isn't a S. Hairston is one of the SEC's top young CBs. Addison has already begun to establish himself and Nichols is a great prospect who will probably play early. Stuart as well. Lots of talent. What is missing, outside of Hairston, is experience. It would be good to add one from the portal and we probably still will.
Water under the bridge but Farmer visited UT a couple of days before his weekend visit here.
So it now seems. So, another recruiting win for the good guys.
Hard to say why some people are so frightened of UT taking players from us. Every year, Stoops takes more good players out of the state of TN. This year, we signed Steven Soles. How many Kentuckians has Josh Heupel signed? One (in 2023), and that turned out to be related to the fact that Stoops wanted Avery Stuart ahead of Conyer. Even when the Wade twins left, they weren't interested in TN. TN came after Rodriguez and Dingle but Stoops held onto them. TN wanted Farmer but Stoops got him. I am well aware of what happened here on Oct. 28. But I embrace the challenge and still believe Stoops will overcome it like he overcame FL.
Re the young CBs, Stoops specifically mentioned Scott and Nichols as prospects in this class that have bright futures at CB. Safety needs work but young talent is there too. Don't forget Ty Bryant came out of nowhere to secure a spot there last season as a true freshman. You're right, talent's there that's just missing experience.
Childress, Bryant, and Lovett are lined up to get most of the snaps at S in 2024. Dantzen Dunn will basically be battling for his career this spring but I'm not sure he can play himself onto the playing chart. There are so many other good young defensive backs. Once Anglin is healthy, he is another who will compete at S. Now Dooley is on board too.
I still expect Coach Stoops to take a CB out of the portal later, if there is an available scholarship left. But with Maxwell, Hardaway, Addison, Stuart, Nichols, and Scott, that's an embarrassment of riches. Along with Maxwell, I expect Nichols will be the next star to come out of our CB room.
Just found out that JJ Weaver is coming back in 2024. Excellent news. For now, our roster is close to being full. This may help to explain why more transfers weren't announced yesterday.
Big time offer sheet out of hs, not sure what the deal is other than most SEC schools missing on their evaluation or he just didn’t want to work. We need a corner, wonder if we’ll offer.
Not a chance. We do need an experienced CB, but Andre Stewart is not the guy.
Besides, JJ Weaver's recently announced return has just about filled up all of our 2024 scholarships, and they are still talking with Devon Manuel and Naquil Betrand.
I suspect Stoops and Marrow are probably taking a new accounting to guess which other players might leave through the portal this spring. Once they determine how many other scholarships they are willing to offer, recruiting will pick up again for the next portal window after the bowl game.
Daniel Harris is now in the transfer portal. CB from Miami who played this year for GA. He was unsuccessfully recruited out of Gulliver Prep School in Miami by Coach Mike. We already have two transfers from GA. IDK if our coaches are talking with him, but this seems like a logical fit if the player is interested. Higher upside and more seasons of eligibility than DeCarlos Nicholson. Could something happen here?
DB Kenyatta Watson out of GA Tech also has entered portal. 12 SEC offers out of HS including UK, looks like he has 2 years.
That would be a fantastic add.
Nic Scourton just entered from Purdue. He is an amazing rusher (10 sacks this year). Apparently A&M; he’s from Texas. But if there was a perfect player to work next to Deone then this kid would be it.
I would have no problem at all with taking another defensive lineman, but quality depth inside at NT/DT behind Silver and Walker looks like the greater need. UK did not recruit Scourton as a hs senior, which isn't necessarily a deal breaker but it means a new dialog would need to start from scratch. You may be right about Scourton going home. At DE, UK already has Oxendine, Rybka, and BRob. I freely admit to excessive enthusiasm about BRob signing with us, but I tend to agree with Vince Marrow. I honestly believe BRob will eventually become our best defensive player since Josh Allen. Aside from already being 275# and having a perfect frame, BRob has incredible work habits. He will play a lot as a true freshman.
Yeah I don’t think we will be involved but if there was 1 need to take the D over the top it would be a great pass rusher.
If anyone has 1-2 million sitting around after Xmas… go ahead please.
UK was 7th in the SEC in tackles for loss and tied for 9th in sacks this year. It could be better, but it has been worse in the fairly recent past. You can always use another pass rusher or two, and it is fair to say that a great pass rush remains one of the features that still separates our defense from GA, AL, and so forth.
OTOH, we could help our pass rushers a whole lot if our secondary would tighten up in the shorter zones and cut down on the number of receivers open for a quick release on any given play. To my eye, that has been the primary problem with our defense this year. How many times has the opposing QB hit the easy checkdown pass and picked up cheap first downs against us? Just to pull up three games as illustrations, we could see this problem very clearly against EKU, MO, and SCar. It has been a real problem.
So a better pass rush would be desirable, but more effective coverages go hand in hand with that. We need both. And that is why I would like to see more CBs with great speed and flexibility who can mirror and run with SEC receivers. Harris is one of those quick, athletic CBs, whereas Nicholson was not so much.
A reminder that Darrion Henry-Young was making steady progress as a pass rusher before being shut down with a knee injury. Can only hope he can return.
Would love to see the stats but our blitzes were probably minimal or that is just my perception, maybe delayed blitzes were too delayed. I’ll defer to the experts but would love to see more than what appears to be a base defense.
In keeping with this line of thought, we just can't seem to get off the field on key 3rd down situations. Do you think we are 1 or 2 guys away or is it a lack of discipline and focus?
It seems if we could force QB's to make a little quicker decisions our 3rd down success might improve. Maybe being a little more aggressive on 3rd down would help.
I don't think we are that far away from taking the next step on defense but we need a push of some type to get over the hump.
Lockdown corner and an above average edge would solve a lot of problems imo.
Another Keidron Smith or Kelvin Joseph would be timely. And I think we will almost certainly take a transfer CB this spring.
On the edge, we have JJ Weaver coming back at Jack LB and BRob coming in at DE. Again, my expectations for BRob are so high that I am hesitant to be more specific yet.
Every year pretty much every team could use help at CB, OT, and edge pass rushers. We need them more than most teams, and it would be great to address those areas in addition to the good work that’s already been done in the portal.
I didn't see a good pass rush off the edge this past year. With big walker it would benefit our defense big time to get a outside rush going. Silver/Walker/Hayes ECT, could really bother a QB if we had a edge threat. Force that QB up into the pocket. Also make the coverage a lot easier..
It is true that our edge rush has not been as good since Jordan Wright graduated, and especially since Josh Allen graduated. BTW Josaih Hayes will also be graduating. It's fair to say that the work of Silver and Walker collapsing the middle of the pocket would be more effective if our edge rushers were more effective. That's why Coach White and Coach Marrow signed Jacob Smith and tried to sign Elijah Groves. Given time, I also like Caleb Redd, who picked UK over SoCal, OK, IA, and OR. BRob will play with his hand on the ground but has a great chance to improve our lateral containment and our pass rush. Currently, our roster is close to full and we still need a CB, an OT, and maybe another WR. With JJ Weaver coming back, and with Jacob on board, I am not sure Stoops has another scholarship right now for another Jack LB although I still tend to agree with the concern about the edge.
Seems to me UK's hope for an edge is going to have to come from the players you mentioned plus the health of Henry-Young and the development of Fearbry/Matthews plus Zeismer. I'm sure coaches are scanning the portal daily.
Read on SB Nation this morning that UK should go hard after the Purdue guy Scourtan. They said he was about 6-4 280 and a great pass rusher.
Article on his transfer called him an 'edge' and a 'linebacker' at Purdue. He had 50 tackles, 15 tackles for loss and 10 sacks. He may not be able to play that position here in the pro league. But he must be pretty agile and quick to do that in the Big Ten.
Run, run away fast as you can. Kid isn't too bad but the dad is a cancer and has been since the kid was playing pop warner. I honestly can't believe he has any eligibility left. The Harris kid is likely headed to Miami, they tampered with him for 2 months, he is a much better player. Wouldn't count out Syracuse for any of our DBs either, the players really liked him and he has already picked up a couple of guys from portal.
Big bidding war here, Michigan, ATM, Texas, Bama, Miami, Oregon all have bidding money. OM has to be getting short on cash or they would be in, might be just haven't seen them mentioned. But be prepared to go BIG on the bid with this kid.
Boone visiting UL. Said between UK, FL St and UL. At 6-1 245 it would be interesting to see him in the top conference with the numbers he put up last year.
Agree 10000000%. Have to match up better, we got killed in the short zone and flat areas this year. Thats why I wasnt disappointed in losing a Nicholson type. Dont care as much about length as I do quickness and agility at corner.
I'm just not a zone guy, cant stand to see 8 guys dropped back staring in the backfield instead of matching up physically to run with guys in their area. It takes a good QB a second to fit in a pass around any of them on short routes I dont care how hard you try to break on it after seeing the release. And the LBers are completely wasted in those coverages, could have been much more usefull coming after the QB and brining pressure.
Similar threads
