Kentucky's coaches could seem to say enough good things about Justin Rigg during fall camp.
The Springboro (Ohio) tight end-turned-Wildcat was one of the surprises of Kentucky's 2016 recruiting class until an early season injury cost him the rest of his freshman campaign.
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The emergence of Rigg very early in fall camp may have contributed to Darry Long's decision to transfer. It's why Stoops was cordial but probably not heartbroken when he announced Long's decision at an early August press conference.
"We’re getting deeper at that position, even with the emergence of the true freshman Justin Rigg," Stoops said on August 8th.
Less than two weeks later, on August 20th, then-new offensive coordinator Eddie Gran also had some words of praise for Rigg's work in the early going.
"I like the young tight end, Justin (Rigg), in terms of development. He has a long way to go but I like where he’s at right now," Gran said.
Rigg saw game action in Kentucky's season opener against Southern Miss. He didn't play against Florida in Week Two but he did get back on the field on the special teams unit against New Mexico State in the Cats' third game. That's also the last game he participated in during the 2016 season, though that's not for any fault of his own.
"I think the injury was on the second or third kickoff return during the New Mexico State game," said Jay Rigg, the player's father. "He was taking on a block and I think the guy got lower pad level than him and got underneath his shoulder pads. We looked at the play and it looks like probably a shoulder pad hit up into his rib cage. There was a lot of twisting and the impact was real quick, too. Just that compression and the twisting of the body somehow caused the injury."
The injury amounted to three lacerations on Rigg's kidney. His recovery time was 6-8 weeks, so it caused him to miss the remainder of Kentucky's season. He did have the opportunity to start to get back into some work outside of games before the TaxSlayer Bowl, but Rigg didn't play in any more live action on Saturdays.
He's now back to full health and anxious to head into his first spring practice in just a few weeks.
"I think the first year, the freshman year, there's always that up and down," Rigg's father said. "He pretty much had a motivated attitude going in. Vince (Marrow) was really high on him and was allowing him to be a part of that tight end group with two other guys. Justin was pretty motivated for camp. He got there and practiced really well with the tight ends. Vince and C.J. (Conrad) and Greg (Hart) were pretty impressed with him when he got to camp, with how well he picked up everything. Overall he was very high on the fact that he thought he was going to get some opportunities for playing time last year. He was going to be in the mix."
The injury was probably the low point of Rigg's freshman year at Kentucky, which is still going on with the second semester of the academic calendar.
"I think that kind of took him down a notch to where I think he got a little low," Rigg's father said. "He knew he wasn't going to be playing anymore and it took a little out of him. He had to regroup and refocus and make some changes with himself. He made some changes with his academics. But that injury was the low point for him. Once he got healthy again he knew he could get back to it, and he did get back into it motivation wise and everything."
The Rigg family has always had a good relationship with Marrow, the tight ends coach and also Rigg's recruiter from the time when he was in high school.
"Vince has always been upbeat, pushing Justin and letting him know his options and opportunities. He helped him stay motivated," Rigg's father said.
Now Rigg is pursuing a medical redshirt as the result of the injury that forced him out of action for the rest of the year.
"They've got to go to the NCAA to present their case on what happened and I guess they'll get approval for that due to the injury," Rigg's father said. "And the fact that it basically put him out for the time period that it did."
Rigg will still be just one of three scholarship tight ends on the roster going into spring practice because Kentucky did not sign a tight end in the 2017 class. If he is granted a medical redshirt that would mean there are two years between Rigg and Conrad, as well, which means a lot of playing time should be in his future.
