Kentucky Wildcats Football: Analyzing the departures

As Jason posted earlier, Kentucky announced the departures of three football players today. Wide receivers Demarcus Sweat and Bookie Cobbins joined defensive back Sterling Wright as attrition casualties this offseason. Rumors have flown that safety Josh Harris, linebacker Demarius Rancifer, and cornerback Shawn Blaylock have departed as well, but there has been no official word on any of the three at this point, and there likely won’t be if they are staying in Lexington.

What so the departures of the three confirmed players mean?

Demarcus Sweat and Bookie Cobbins
Losing Sweat hurts. He was far from consistent catching the ball, but Sweat was one of Kentucky’s most dynamic offensive weapons. With blazing speed and a knack for finding the open field, Sweat would have been heavily relied upon in the passing game as well as on special teams. He was capable of playing inside or on the perimeter and gave Kentucky a versatile target that could stretch the field. Cobbins, a converted quarterback, was never quite able to make the transition to wide receiver. He has never had any type of impact at UK though, so his departure is negligible. In the upcoming season, Cobbins was likely to play some due to a lack of depth at the receiver position but was not a contender for a starting job or serious playing time. More than likely, Cobbins’ role would have been that of a reserve receiver. Now, Kentucky heads into camp this summer with only four scholarship receivers. Signing junior college wide out Javess Blue helps the situation and all three of the incoming freshmen will be needed to contribute right away. More importantly, the Wildcats will need walk-ons like Austin Sheehan to step up and fill the holes in the depth chart. In any case, right scholarship receivers is simply not enough to run Coach Brown’s Air-Raid scheme, so expect the tight ends and backs to flex out this fall and Kentucky should be looking to add another four or five receivers in the 2013 class.

Sterling Wright
After redshirting the 2012 season, Wright will be leaving Kentucky without ever having played a down in Lexington. His departure is probably not as big of a deal as the other two because so little was expected of Him in the first place. The Wildcats will return Ashely Lowery (assuming he is healed up from his car wreck earlier this offseason), Glenn Faulkner, Daron and Zack Blaylock, converted cornerback eric Dixon, and redshirt freshman Josh Harris for 2013. Adding in highly touted signee Marcus McWilson would have likely just pushed Wright further down the depth chart as well. There was a very real chance that he would have been fourth string on the depth chart next year had he stayed.

All in all, this was probably the best move for all parties involved. Bookie Cobbins and Sterling Wright were not expected to be contributors this season and Sweat’s academics were in such bad standings that he was forced to sit out the end of last year. As in most cases of attrition, the moves that happened today were likely in the best interest of all parties involved.