Kentucky Football is a rollercoaster ride nearly every season; for better or, more often than not, worse. Mark Stoops, back in his day, either started hot and cooled off or started hot and faltered when it mattered most A lot of that had to do with his teams' undying inability to get Kentucky's offensive line back to their pre-COVID level of success.
Fast forward to now, Will Stein has come in and made a point of shoring up the cracks in the Big Blue Wall, and a national analyst believes he did it faster than anyone could have imagined.
CBS' Blake Brockermeyer has the Cats behind only Georgia and Ohio State in his offensive line rankings, and if that comes to fruition, Coach Stein is about to surprise some people in Lexington a lot sooner than anyone expected. Being in the company of those two juggernauts in year one, in any capacity, feels like a miracle for this program.
Will Stein's Big Blue Focus Starts on The Inside
When Stein was first brought in, he said that high school recruiting would be the number one reason why Kentucky Football would be coming back into the limelight. He's offered nearly every big-name offensive lineman in the country since then, and even managed to reeled in more than a few.
Brockermeyer noted: "Kentucky has quietly assembled a talented roster, led by an offensive line that should be one of the Wildcats' strengths this season." He singled out Malachi Wood, Lance Heard, Coleton Price, Ohio State transfer Tegra Tshabola, and Olaus Alinen as the projected starters. And that line has some serious, team-changing potential.
Coleton Price specifically was, at worst, the third best center in college football last year at Baylor. Lance Heard was a top-10 tackle, and while Tshabola and Alinen have rotated in and out in the past, both bring crucial experience to Kentucky's rebuild.
Will this line be as impactful as the legendary John Schlarman years? Who knows, but the biggest hiccup, according to Brockermeyer, is that Kentucky "has very little proven depth behind its starting five." That does appear unfortunately accurate; if there are any injuries that surprise the Cats in fall camp, someone will have to step up fast and be better than expected.
For now, though, et's all just enjoy that Kentucky Football has an offensive line being discussed as one of the best in college football. What an awesome thing to celebrate after a few dire years for this ever-loyal fanbase.
Let us have this one. An offseason win is an offseason win.
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