Kentucky football: under appreciated Wildcat kickers vital to UK success

Colin Goodfellow was a bright spot of nowhere last season

Colin Goodfellow stepped up out of nowhere last year assuming full-time punting duties and keeping opponents on their heels with his kicks.

The 6-2, 225-pound super senior is another old soul of the Kentucky football team but didn’t see action until two seasons ago in a pair of games, kicking three times against Vandy and a whopping seven times at Alabama.

Last season he had the starting job clutch, solid and dependable ranking third in the SEC in punting with a 45.94 average in 10 games. He was called on to punch 35 times, totaling 1,608 yards with a behemoth boot of 70-yards against Georgia and Mississippi State. He finished with the second-highest season average for punting in Kentucky history.

Routinely seeing his punts hang for nearly 4.5 seconds including a 68-yarder at Mississippi State has kept Kentucky’s stalling offense at times from paying the price.

He actually entered the transfer portal at the end of last season but then took his name back out to play a final year at UK. When he isn’t on the football field tending to kick you can find him in scrubs taking care of patients as a registered nurse.

Maybe he and Ruffolo can continue their journey together in a hospital setting if pro football doesn’t work out.

Wilson Berry

Aussie Wilson Berry was expected to be the punter last year trying to follow in fellow countryman Max Duffy’s footsteps. However, after two games a nagging back issue kept him sidelined for the season.

Berry’s talent is a bit of an unknown as he has been acclimating to the gridiron style of football and the Australian rules kind.

Seeing action in two games he had four punts for 148 yards (37.0) with one punt instead the 20-yard line. We saw him twice against Louisianna Monroe in the season opener where he had two punts for 71 yards (35.5).