Meet Brian Adams
By Paul Jordan
(this is a well circulated picture of Adams jumping over a 6’9 teammate)
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Kentucky has seen the wide receiver position emerge as one of the best position groups on the field this year. No one should really be surprised that Randall Cobb has been such a playmaker in so many different ways, but I think a couple of the other players have really stepped up to take some pressure off of him. Chris Matthews was having a decent season before South Carolina came to town and he went absolutely ballistic on the Gamecocks. Now he’s proven that he isn’t just a sidekick to Cobb, he’s a SEC caliber receiver that defensive coordinators will have to account for or he’ll carve up the defense all night. LaRod King came in and Showed flashes of his immense potential last year and has stepped up to make some big catches throughout this season. Then when junior Gene McCaskill was lost for the year with a knee injury, Matt Roark stepped up and became a major contributor.
Now the Wildcats are in a pickle of sorts. Randall Cobb and Chris Matthews are good to go against Mississippi State, but it gets a little hairy after that. As previously stated, McCaskill is out for the season with knee injury. Then on Saturday, Larod King sustained a knee injury that will limit him this weekend. Then on Monday it was announced that Matt Roark would be suspended for the game for violating team rules. So basically Kentucky will go to Starkville with three of their top five receivers either unavailable or only available in a limited role.
And so enters the next guy on the depth chart, redshirt freshman Brian Adams. Adams is intriguing for a couple of reasons. On the negative side, he’s only recently recovered from a life threatening blood clot that forced him to sit out of football for nearly all of his freshman year and it forced him to redshirt. When he was playing in high school, he was a quarterback and he’s still learning the nuances of the receiver position. Then you factor in that football didn’t get his full attention this off-season while he was playing baseball and it’s a wonder he’s even as high on the depth chart as he is. But when you look at the positives Adams brings to the table, it makes a little more sense.
He has NFL size for a wide receiver and is listed on Kentucky’s roster as 6’4 and 232 pounds. Then you add in that the coaches consider him the team’s fastest receiver and his ability to move at his size is almost unimaginable. We’re talking about a guy bigger than Kentucky’s starting tight end and comparable to UK’s starting defensive ends here, and he’s faster than Randall Cobb.
Adams will get his chance to make a name for himself this week against Mississippi State and their smaller corners. The Bulldog’s do have one of the tallest cornerbacks in the SEC in 6’2 Jonathan Banks, but it’s a safe bet that he’ll be occupied with Randall Cobb or Chris Matthews most of the night. That means Adams will likely be matched up with a linebacker or safety (automatic mismatch) or against a cornerback that he has at least a five-inch height advantage on. With Kentucky using the slot receiver heavily over the past few games, this will be Adams’ best chance to step up and make an early impact for the offense.
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