Cats land coveted North Texas WR Ja'Mori Maclin

One of Kentucky's biggest priorities in the transfer portal this offseason has been to upgrade the wide receiver room, which has been up-and-down on the field and is now losing Tayvion Robinson in advance of next season.

Bringing Shamar Porter back, out of the portal, was a good start. Landing Texas A&M's Raymond Cottrell, along with the Porter news, is very good for Kentucky longer-term.

In the short term, the biggest news of the offseason is that which just broke: North Texas wide receiver Ja'Mori Maclin is transferring to UK.

It's a huge addition for a program that is moving on from Scott Woodward as wide receivers coach, because Maclin was one of the top receivers at the Group of Five level during the fall.

Maclin's collegiate career began at Missouri. He attended Kirkwood HS in the St. Louis area, and is related to former Mizzou great Jeremy Maclin. Eventually he transferred to North Texas after a couple of years and he has really started to break out ever since.

He had 16 catches for 380 yards (23.75 YPC) and two scores in his first year with the Mean Green. The real breakout was this year, in 2023, when Maclin had 57 catches for 1,004 yards and 11 touchdowns. He had 100-plus yard games against Cal (4 catches, 122 yards, 2 TD), Temple (6 catches, 163 yards, 2 TD), Abilene Christian (2 catches, 110 yards, TD), and UAB (9 catches, 118 yards). Maclin had 11 touchdown receptions in UNT's first eight games of the season.

PFF gave Maclin a 69.2 score for the season.