{"id":59611,"date":"2024-05-09T16:30:08","date_gmt":"2024-05-09T20:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=59611"},"modified":"2024-05-08T20:49:51","modified_gmt":"2024-05-09T00:49:51","slug":"kentucky-adds-gavin-wimsatt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/05\/09\/kentucky-adds-gavin-wimsatt\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky Adds Gavin Wimsatt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As we went through our position-by-position preview for the Cats, we said one group that needed experience was quarterbacks. Specifically, Kentucky would likely hit the transfer portal to find another player. That&#8217;s precisely what <strong>Mark Stoops<\/strong> did, and in the process, he gets a do-over at a rare in-state recruiting miss. Let&#8217;s introduce you to the newest member of the quarterback room and show you how he fits in as Kentucky Adds <strong>Gavin Wimsatt.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Cats Pick Up Another Quarterback<\/h2>\n<h3>Headed Out Of State<\/h3>\n<p>Hailing from Owensboro, Kentucky, Wimsatt ranked third-best player in Kentucky and 25th-best quarterback in the 2021 class. In recent years, Stoops and <strong>Vince Marrow<\/strong> have prioritized keeping the best players in the state home. However, the 6-foot-3, 225-pounder spurned the Cats, choosing to play for <strong>Greg Schiano<\/strong> and Rutgers. While he was initially listed in the 2022 class,\u00a0Wimsatt finished early and enrolled in the fall of 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Playing in four games as a freshman, Winsatt completed nine of 21 passes for 45 yards. The following season, he played eight games, throwing for 757 yards and five touchdowns. However, he did have seven interceptions.<\/p>\n<p>Winsatt won the starting quarterback job in 2023 when he led the Scarlet Knights to a 7-6 record and a 31-24 win over Miami (Florida) in the Pinstripe Bowl. In the process, it gained the first bowl win for Rutgers since 2014.<\/p>\n<p>During the 2023 campaign, he completed 48 percent of his passes for 1,735 yards and nine touchdowns. In addition, he ran for 497 yards and 11 touchdowns, a total that ranked him fifth in the Big Ten.<\/p>\n<h3>Returning Home<\/h3>\n<p>During the Spring, Winsatt found himself in a battle for the starting quarterback job with former Minnesota signal caller <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/athan-kaliakmanis-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Athan Kaliakmanis.<\/a> Offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarocca, who Kaliakmanis played for at Minnesota, named him the starting quarterback,\u00a0and Wimsatt entered the transfer portal.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, Winsatt visited Lexington. In fact, he was spotted with Marrow at Bluegrass Airport. Apparently, that&#8217;s the new thing in Kentucky: people camp out at the airport to see who coaches are picking up for visits. Shortly after that, he announced he was a Wildcat. He has two years of eligibility remaining. Now that we&#8217;ve given you an introduction let&#8217;s return to show where he fits in as Kentucky adds Wimsatt.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Rutgers transfer quarterback Gavin Wimsatt has committed to Kentucky. <\/p>\n<p>The Owensboro native has decided to come back home and play for the Cats. <\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcf8 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GavinWimsatt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@GavinWimsatt<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/e1AwpOi2il\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/e1AwpOi2il<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Sidelines &#8211; Kentucky (@SSN_Kentucky) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SSN_Kentucky\/status\/1787926098010841131?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 7, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Adding Needed Depth<\/h3>\n<p>As we discussed in the beginning, the Wildcats have several talented quarterbacks with little experience. Presumed starter <strong>Brock Vandagriff<\/strong> only played in 13 games at Georgia, much of that in a mop-up role.<\/p>\n<p>Behind him is <strong>Beau Allen<\/strong>, a former Wildcat backup who transferred to Tarleton State and Georgia Southern before returning to Lexington. Allen did not play at all last season. The other quarterback is a true freshman and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2023\/12\/20\/kentucky-signs-four-star-cutter-boley\/\" target=\"_self\">highly touted local product, <strong>Cutter Boley. <\/strong><\/a>As a result, Wimsatt is presumed to be Vandagriff&#8217;s backup.<\/p>\n<p>While his passing numbers don&#8217;t wow you, his running ability certainly does. The new offensive coordinator, <strong>Bush Hamdan<\/strong>,\u00a0wants a rushing quarterback in his attack, and Wimsatt certainly fits that bill. Previously,\u00a0UK had hosted former UCLA quarterback <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/collin-schlee-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Collin Schlee, <\/a>who eventually ended up at Virginia Tech.<\/p>\n<p>Again, Kentucky adds Gavin Wimsatt from Rutgers, who adds much-needed experience to the Wildcat signal callers. Thanks for checking out this and all the great content here at <strong>Last Word On College Football. <\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_59645\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-59645\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-59645 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/05\/USATSI_23129773_168400562_lowres-300x258.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"258\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/05\/USATSI_23129773_168400562_lowres-300x258.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/05\/USATSI_23129773_168400562_lowres-1024x881.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/05\/USATSI_23129773_168400562_lowres-768x660.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/05\/USATSI_23129773_168400562_lowres-1536x1321.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/05\/USATSI_23129773_168400562_lowres.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-59645\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo Credit: Chris Pedota, NorthJersey.com \/ USA TODAY NETWORK<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As we went through our position-by-position preview for the Cats, we said one group that needed experience was quarterbacks. Specifically, Kentucky would likely hit the transfer portal to find another player. That&#8217;s precisely what Mark Stoops did, and in the process, he gets a do-over at a rare in-state recruiting miss. Let&#8217;s introduce you to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":877,"featured_media":59645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[35624,7297,184,140,7774,21,285,24586,7850,455],"class_list":["post-59611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sec","category-featured","tag-2024-kentucky-wildcats","tag-brock-vandagriff","tag-cfb","tag-fbs","tag-gavin-wimsatt","tag-kentucky-wildcats","tag-mark-stoops","tag-ncaa-2","tag-recruiting-rankings","tag-rutgers-scarlet-knights"],"modified_by":"Kate Pearson Halyburton, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/877"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}