Will Kentucky have a preseason QB competition? Mark Stoops explains Gavin Wimsatt addition.

There won’t be many assigned seats in Kentucky football’s quarterback meeting room this fall.

Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Liam Coen is gone to the NFL, as is 2023 starter Devin Leary. Backups Kaiya Sheron, Destin Wade and Deuce Hogan have all transferred to other schools . Even walk-on Shane Hamm, who remained with Kentucky through spring practice, is no longer on the roster.

But while none of the four quarterbacks on UK’s 2024 roster were on the team a year ago, the Wildcats do not appear to be entering preseason camp with a true quarterback competition.

“We have a quarterback,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said at SEC Media Days on Thursday, referring to Georgia transfer Brock Vandagriff . “We believe in him. He’s got to go prove it.”

Vandagriff is something of a unicorn in the modern era of quarterback recruiting.

He was rated a five-star prospect as a Georgia high school senior, ranked as one of the top five quarterbacks in the country by the 247Sports Composite, but he has attempted just 21 passes in three college seasons.

Vandagriff was joined on campus for spring practice by freshman early enrollee Cutter Boley and former Wildcat Beau Allen, a Lexington native who started his career at UK but spent the last two seasons at Tarleton State and Georgia Southern. After spring practice, UK added former Owensboro star Gavin Wimsatt as a transfer from Rutgers.

While Wimsatt is by far the most experienced quarterback of the group with 25 games played and 19 starts across three seasons in the Big Ten, it does not appear Vandagriff’s starting spot is in immediate danger.

“He has a lot of snaps under his belt,” Stoops said of Wimsatt in his first comments to reporters since Wimsatt’s commitment. “We don’t have a lot of experience on our roster, and he was looking for an opportunity to come in and prove himself and compete.

“And so we like that with Gavin. We like the fact that he’s got snaps under his belt. He’s a big, strong guy, and I think he’ll do very well in our system.”

Wimsatt completed just 46.6% of his passes in three seasons at Rutgers and threw more interceptions (17) than touchdowns (14), but he has proven himself as a dynamic runner with 628 rushing yards and 11 rushing touchdowns. New UK offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan has made it clear he wants the quarterback run game to be part of the Wildcats’ offense.

Vandagriff is also a threat as a runner and did impress in limited action as Georgia’s backup last fall by completing 12 of 18 passes for 165 yards and two touchdowns.

“Brock is a fantastic quarterback,” left tackle Marques Cox said at SEC Media Days. “He takes great command of the offense –— with the time I’ve been with him. We’re still improving every day to get fine-tuned detail throughout the season and throughout the training camp that we had.

“So, just getting those details ironed out and then we’re going to have a really great season with him. I’m really excited to see what he can do.”

While most five-star quarterbacks play early in their college careers or transfer to another school quickly after losing the starting job, Vandagriff stayed at Georgia long enough to finish his degree. Losing quarterback competitions in Athens where two-time national champion Stetson Bennett started for Vandagriff’s first two seasons and 2025 projected first-round pick Carson Beck beat Vandagriff for the job in 2023 is not the same as losing the job at most schools either.

But Vandagriff is still far from a proven quantity.

“He obviously has the talent,” Stoops said. “He just needs to get under center and get some reps.”

Vandagriff enrolled at Kentucky when Coen was still offensive coordinator and was deep in the process of learning Coen’s playbook when Coen was hired by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Hamdan runs a pro-style scheme that is similar to Coen’s playbook, but Kentucky will transition from a predominantly huddle attack to a no-huddle one.

That transition led to some struggles in presnap communication during spring practice, though the Wildcats did operate without noticeable issue during an abbreviated spring game.

Cox reported he, Vandagriff and center Eli Cox have organized summer sessions away from coaches to continue to fine tune the new offensive operation.

“It definitely needs reps,” Cox said. “Definitely need repetition. It’s new to everybody. So those reps just being more critical, because these are reps that are going carry over into the season.”

Like Vandagriff, Wimsatt has two years of eligibility remaining.

The best-case scenario for Kentucky would be Vandagriff immediately proves his high school recruiting hype was justified and performs so well that he establishes himself as a 2025 draft prospect. Then Wimsatt could be in line to compete with Boley for the 2025 starting job.

If Vandagriff performs well enough to retain his job for 2025 but not jump to the draft, Wimsatt could always transfer again to find a school where he can start in his final season of college football. But Kentucky clearly needs Wimsatt for now.

In the event of injury or struggles from Vandagriff, Wimsatt at least raises the floor for Kentucky thanks to his experience and running ability.

“Gavin is also a great guy,” Cox said. “I hung around him recently, trying to get to know him. He’s a great guy, great dude. Really down to earth, really humble.

“He’s got a chance to be another great quarterback that can win us games this year. I don’t know what’s going on in that QB room. I just know all of them can win us games. I’m really confident in that.”

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