Benny Snell was one of the two most recognizable Kentucky football players on last year's team, and nobody in blue and white was more popular over the previous three seasons taken as a whole.
His departure means the Wildcats are looking for answers in the backfield in 2019 and beyond. Fortunately for Mark Stoops, Eddie Gran and the offense, there are options.
With AJ Rose the presumed heir apparent, Cats Illustrated writers are taking it a step beyond the question of who will start and asking how Rose, a rising redshirt junior, will fare in 2019.
Jeff Drummond: AJ Rose is the answer to a nice little trivia question from Kentucky's historic 2018 season. Years from now, when people look back on that team, they'll think of the record-setting Benny Snell Jr. leading the charge on the offensive side of the ball, but Rose somewhat quietly posted the best yards-per-carry average on the team at 6.2. I'm eager to see how he fares as the primary back next season. He's been extremely patient in waiting for his opportunity when a lot of kids these days may have taken the transfer route by now. I don't think you'll see Rose getting 20-plus carries in many games like Snell did. I fully expect Chris Rodriguez and Kavosiey Smoke to share some of the workload, but Rose has proven that he has some big-play ability in him.
Travis Graf: Benny Snell was the best running back in Kentucky football history, there’s no doubting that. With that being said, Rose has all the potential that Benny had...and then some. Rose is a threat to catch the ball out of the backfield as well as hit a homerun when he bounces it to the outside. I’ve heard people around the program say that Eddie Gran and the rest of the coaches told AJ they plan on throwing the ball out of the backfield a lot this season and it’ll be featured in the game plan. I think Rose has a good enough campaign that he enters the NFL draft after the season.
Justin Rowland: The first question Rose will need to answer relates to durability in a game and over a period of time in the season. There is no reason to believe this is an area he's lacking in, but Kentucky fans have been spoiled with a running back who could easily tote the rock anywhere between 20 and 32 times from week to week. Most college backs aren't comfortable doing that or it at least wears them down some (and at times Snell himself might have felt the effects of that workload). In 2016, UK split the carries roughly 40-40-20 between Snell, Boom Williams and Jojo Kemp. In 2017, it was much more heavily weighted towards Snell with Sihiem King as a spot-duty backup, and in 2018 it was Snell with Rose picking up about one-third to one-fourth his number of carries some weeks. I think Rose will log about half of Kentucky's carries from the running back position but Chris Rodriguez, Kavosiey Smoke and maybe Travis Tisdale are going to have ample opportunities to showcase what they can do until Eddie Gran finds himself comfortable with a No. 2. It will be the most carries for a No. 2 back at Kentucky since that '16 season but I would be surprised if Rose doesn't push for a 1,000 yard season because he has shown himself to not only be explosive but a pretty physical runner who breaks tackles and picks up yards after contact. Expect more receptions out of the running back position but time will tell if UK gets as many touchdowns from there because Snell was so good short-yardage.
