Cats Illustrated's offseason mailbag series continues to start this week with a question about the impact of the transfer portal on various positions on the roster.
KapitalCat: Which position group is potentially the most improved due to portal acquisitions. And the flip side which position group took the biggest hit due portal losses. Finally if you care to take a guess…. what’s your over/under number of wins.
That's a great question, but I believe the answers are pretty clear cut.
The offensive line is the most improved position unit on the team based on portal acquisitions, and the wide receiver room is the one that was hardest hit due to outgoing transfers.
According to reports and what CI sources have said, Kentucky spent nearly $3 million in the portal revamping and remaking its offensive line room. We knew it would be a heavy priority with the losses from last season and the fact that the line needed to improve so much. With the talk about the need to build the kind of line Mark Stoops had earlier in his tenure it was bound to be a focal point.
While a couple of the portal additions need to continue to gain strength - we're talking Alex Wollschlaeger and Evan Wibberley - that isn't a surprise based on what we heard coming in. And even with the quick departure of Wallace Unamba, who went back into the portal as quickly as he had picked Kentucky, overall there has been an upgrade.
Arkansas' Joshua Braun, New Mexico State's Shiyazh Pete, and the aforementioned players give Kentucky a chance to have an improved offensive line room, in part because the Wildcats didn't have any significant outgoing transfers.
Grand Valley State's Cameron Jones and Ball State's Rob Fogler were added in the second portal window and that had less to do with Kentucky having outstanding work to do in the trenches and more the need to find enough quality healthy bodies for development, competition, and to fill the room.
At receiver there's a chance the room improves in some respects. We and others heard about culture issues in the room at times over the past couple of years and that could get better with the roster turnover.
However, losing Dane Key to Nebraska and Barion Brown to LSU represents a significant decline in talent that the Cats did not make up for with portal acquisitions. Hardley GIlmore will help the situation coming back from Nebraska but he's someone gained "again" and not for the first time.
Not only that, but Anthony Brown-Stephens is off to Tulane, and while Kentucky has added some help at slot, the overall balance of subtractions and additions means the receiver room's talent is down.
That's no knock on the incoming receivers like Troy Stellato, Kendrick Law, JJ Hester, or Ashton Cozart. Ja'Mori Maclin should have a much better season than he did a year ago. Fred Farrier and Gilmore will be interesting and perhaps freshman DJ Miller can make a splash impact.
But speaking in terms of the portal, the offensive line improved the most and the receiver room takes the biggest hit because of the loss of two potential NFL players.
