Kentucky Football: Lucas Padgett carrying on family legacy as a Wildcat

   Scott Padgett’s son Lucas is a Wildcat… on the gridiron.

Kentucky Football usually doesn’t make news when commitments from preferred walk-ons come rolling in, except if it’s the case that their father is Kentucky Wildcat legend on the basketball court. Scott Padgett‘s son Lucas Padgett announced last week of his intent to be a Kentucky Wildcat on the football field as a preferred walk-on.

Padgett was a second-team all-state center at Homewood High School in Alabama where he last played football but hasn’t got to play since moving to New Mexico after his father took an assistant head coaching position at New Mexico State after being fired by Samford in the spring of 2020. Lucas’ older brother Logan is a sophomore forward for the Lobos.

The entire state of New Mexico postponed football in the fall of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and not getting to play a senior season at La Cuerva High School heavily impacted Padgett’s recruitment, the bigger schools were set to come to see Lucas, but not as many have gotten the chance to because of COVID-19.

Scott Padgett spoke to Cameron Mills on his radio show about his son’s recruitment.

"“He had a bunch of Conference USA and Ivy League offers and had a lot of schools recruiting him. Everything got canceled and it threw everything for a loop. Then, I make the move to New Mexico, a state that’s been shut down the whole time. He hasn’t gotten to play his senior year. It’s really affected who’s gotten to see him in the last year.”"

Padgett won’t be the only legacy to step foot on Kroger Field for the Wildcats. He joins a pair of others in quarterback Beau Allen whose dad was also a quarterback, and defensive back Andru Phillips, whose father Carlos Phillips, played football for the Wildcats in the 1980s.

Big Blue Nation easily recognizes what Scott Padgett accomplished on the hardwood for the Wildcats where he played four seasons under both Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith, He averaged10.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, and two assists while shooting 36.4 percent from three-point range.

During Kentucky’s national championship year in 1996, he redshirted but was named to the All-Final Four Team in 1997. The following year Scott earned All-SEC, All-SEC Tournament, NCAA All-Region, and All-NCAA Final Four accolades in helping lead Kentucky to its second national title in three years.

The family tree doesn’t end there. Mom Cynthia (Dozier) Padgett was a volleyball player at Kentucky where she met her future husband Scott. She was an outside hitter for the Wildcats and passed her skills down to daughter Layla who plays high school volleyball and coached her at Homewood High School.

At 6’4 285 pounds Lucas Padgett is a big kid, at this point only being in the preferred walk-on spot Kentucky fans shouldn’t expect much, but if Padgett can put on some weight I could definitely see him eventually bumped up to a scholarship player.

The potential is there for Padgett to one day be a contributor on Kentucky’s offensive line. Stoops troops may have found another diamond in the rough with Padgett.