This is one outlet's own report from Yahoo Sports — the article as it was filed.
AIPROPX ReportYahoo Sports · 2h ago
Kentucky football still sorting out running backs. 'Work in progress
LEXINGTON — Perhaps no position group for Kentucky football has more question marks than running back.
To wit: The pair expected to be the top two on the depth chart, Jovantae Barnes and CJ Baxter , were held out of contact drills during spring practice as they recovered from injuries. Depth was so dire this spring that Martels Carter Jr. , a defensive back, became a tailback . (UK coach Will Stein revealed Aug. 3 that Carter's move to offense is permanent .) There are two holdovers from former coach Mark Stoops ' regime: third-year sophomore Jason Patterson (who played in all 12 games in a reserve role in 2025) and junior Tovani Mizell (who has all of four carries in two seasons while rehabbing from a knee injury at the end of his high school career). Then there's freshman Delvecchio Alston II and a junior college duo ( Jordan Colbert and Ahmir Smith ) who joined the team just before preseason camp began.
The Wildcats , to be sure, have plenty of options.
Just not many answers. Yet.
"We've still got some work to do. We've got some work to do," Kolby Smith , Kentucky 's running backs coach, said Monday, Aug. 10. "We're a work in progress, for sure. It's a new coaching style with me, getting a new train of thought, different ways to look at it.
"I'm very big on visualizing plays before the play is snapped, so they have to know what blocks they're getting in front of them. They've gotta anticipate the run angles that we're creating for them, so they can play faster."
UK's top two rushers — in terms of yardage — last season, Seth McGowan and Dante Dowdell , departed during the offseason. McGowan exhausted his college eligibility, while Dowdell entered the transfer portal and wound up at SEC power Georgia .
The Cats haven't had a 1,000-yard rusher since Ray Davis ran for 1,129 in 2023. Kentucky had a four-year run of players eclipse the 1,000-yark from 2016 through 2019. Stanley "Boom" Williams (1,170 yards) and Benny Snell (1,091) started the streak in 2016. Snell also accomplished the feat in the next two seasons (1,333 in 2017 and 1,449 in 2018). Lynn Bowden, a receiver-turned-quarterback, capped the stretch with 1,468 yards in 2019.
The current crop of Wildcats hope to join that aforementioned group.
As Smith and the rest of the staff — especially Stein and offensive coordinator Joe Sloan — continue to evaluate the room heading into the Saturday, Sept. 5 opener versus Youngstown State , the former UofL running back isn't concerned. The situation will work itself out.
Important as making plays with the ball in hand may be, another attribute might wind up the deciding factor.
"They don't block, they don't play," Smith said. "Very simple."
KentuckyWorkPerhapsJovantae BarnesCJ BaxterDepthMartels Carter JrWill SteinAugCarterThereMark Stoops
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