Jared Casey was one of the crown jewels of Kentucky's 2019 recruiting class.
The former four-star prospect has had an eventful first year inside the UK football program and he's the subject of today's edition of Cats Illustrated's Roster Rundown.
Background: Casey was a bit of a late-riser in recruiting circles, earning his fourth star after putting in work at a Rivals camp and eventually giving a verbal commitment to Oregon. But the Louisville native stayed in touch with Vince Marrow and would flip his commitment to Kentucky.
Casey has already been in the UK program for some time. He was an early enrollee as a Class of 2019 signee so he finished his third semester remotely after spring practice wrapped up. He kept his redshirt during his true freshman season so he still has four years
2020 Outlook: Casey has been moved from outside linebacker to Will so he will no longer be working with Brad White's position group but will be under the watch of Jon Sumrall. He's one of two outside linebackers with new positions, the other being Josh Paschal who moved to the defensive line. That says something about how UK feels about its depth on the outside but in this case it seems to be because the staff sees Casey as more of a fit inside.
The move only allowed Casey about five practices worth of work at Will in the spring due to COVID-19 concerns, which shut football down. But with the benefit of hindsight it's a good thing UK allowed him to get that work because of Chris Oats' unexpected medical condition which has created plenty of near and long-term questions for him in football terms.
UK will lean heavily on DeAndre Square and Jamin Davis, probably at Will and Mike respectively, but there's no proven depth after that. Marquez Bembry is also on the inside, as is true freshman D'Eryk Jackson, but because of Oats' issue its probably essential that Casey be prepared to give UK at least some quality snaps in 2020. He won't have the luxury of a learning curve that it probably appeared he would when the move was made.
