Football is the ultimate team sport. College rosters include up to 85 scholarship players and when you throw in walk-ons, which are still a thing for now at least, the number is well over 100.

Depth and building a balanced roster are keys to success, but individual stars still have an outsized impact on the game.

With fall camp starting up very soon, Cats Illustrated publisher Justin Rowland makes an attempt at ranking the five best football players on Kentucky's roster going into the 2024 season.

5. WR/KR Barion Brown

If we're talking about consistency then Brown would not be one of the five players on this list at least going into the season. He had a sub-50% catch rate last season and that's less than ideal. It was not a good number compared to the other catch rates for the top receivers on the team.

However, Brown is an electrifying return man and has the ability to take over a football game.

Brown had 1,303 total yards last season (147 rushing, 539 receiving, 51 punt returns, 576 kick returns). He touched the football 74 times during the 2023 season and averaged 17.7 yards per touch.

He had kickoff returns for touchdowns in Kentucky's two final games of the season, UofL and Clemson, and against the Tigers he added three catches for 100 yards and another score.

Brown has a chance to climb this list this season if he gets open more and takes advantage of more of his chances, and we know those chances are going to come. It's a good sign that he's listed as much bigger than he was last year.

There's a reason Kentucky has tried to get the ball to Brown even when the results were mixed. With the football he may be the hardest player in college football to catch. Consistency counts for a lot, but so does the ability to make splash plays that can tip the game. That's what he brings and we'll see about the consistency going into his junior season.

At SEC Media Days, Mark Stoops said he was pleased with some of the things he's seen from Brown this offseason in terms of the consistency of his work ethic.