BREAKING: Quarterback Joey Gatewood will transfer to Kentucky
It has been obvious for weeks that former Auburn quarterback Joey Gatewood was serious about the possibility of transferring to Kentucky.
Cats Illustrated had been reporting over the past couple of weeks, with increasing confidence, that Kentucky had emerged as the most likely landing spot for the former Rivals100 recruit.
Now it's official: Gatewood will transfer to Kentucky, per a message from the player himself on his Twitter account.
Cats Illustrated has learned that Gatewood had an in-home visit with head coach Mark Stoops and assistant coach Vince Marrow last night. Based on the timing of Gatewood's announcement it would seem that trip went well, as did, from what sources told CI, his two recent trips to Lexington.
Multiple sources have told Cats Illustrated that Kentucky will work to gain immediate eligibility for Gatewood.
He redshirted for Auburn as a true freshman after a storied high school career in 2018 then played sporadically for the Tigers in 2019 after waging a heated quarterback competition at Auburn.
That quarterback battle was eventually won by Nix, who just led the Tigers to a win against Alabama and has rewritten the freshman passing records on the Plains in his first year.
Read what kind of player Kentucky is getting in Gatewood.
As things stand now, if Gatewood has to sit out a year, Terry Wilson would be the presumed starter for Kentucky assuming his health is back to 100-percent. Mark Stoops has said that Wilson will not be ready to participate in spring practice. Having Gatewood eligible for the 2020 season would at least be an insurance policy.
Gatewood is the highest-ranked high school quarterback prospect to either commit to Kentucky or eventually land in Lexington during the Rivals.com era.
While his transfer will not count towards Kentucky's 2020 recruiting class in the Rivals rankings, Gatewood was a four-star (6.0 RR) prospect and ranked the No. 3 dual-threat quarterback nationally in the Class of 2018.
He passed for more than 1,400 yards and rushed for 1,100 as a senior at Jacksonville (Fla.) Bartram Trails, leading the team to a spot in the state championship game.
While Gatewood is a different player than former Auburn quarterback Cam Newton, because of his build and raw ability he drew obvious comparisons to the former national championship-winning quarterback and current Carolina Panther.
Kentucky is also expected to have several other scholarship quarterbacks on roster next year and beyond, with Walker Wood a rising redshirt junior, Nik Scalzo and Amani Gilmore as rising redshirt freshmen, and incoming prospect Beau Allen also set to join the fold.