A record-setting senior season paved the way for Kentucky kicker Alex Raynor to become the Wildcats’ first SEC Special Teams Player of the Year, the league announced on Wednesday.

The Kennesaw, Ga., native made his first 15 field goal attempts this season and finished 15-of-16, a 93.8% clip, tops in the SEC and the best figure in UK program history. He was also the previous record holder after hitting 10 of 11 during the 2023 season.

Raynor made 25 of 27 field goals during his two seasons at Kentucky, including a school-record 55-yard field goal against Georgia. He also made a 51-yarder against the Bulldogs, marking only the second time in program history that a kicker made two attempts from beyond 50 yards in the same game.

His two field goals in a 20-17 upset of No. 6 Ole Miss earned him the Lou Groza Award Star of the Week honors. He is a finalist for the national award.

Three other Cats joined Raynor on the All-SEC Coaches Team, including wide receiver/return specialist Barion Brown, center Eli Cox, and defensive tackle Deone Walker. Brown was a first-team selection as a return specialist, while Cox and Walker were named to the third team.

Mark Pope didn’t need to bust out a zone defense this season until the Gonzaga game. But when he did, it completely changed the momentum.

A 16-point halftime lead for the Bulldogs quickly disappeared as Kentucky implemented a 1-3-1 zone that stymied the Gonzaga offense. The Zags shot 54.3 percent from the field in the first half but just 38.9 percent in the second half and overtime. With help from the zone, Kentucky overcame a massive deficit and went on to win in overtime, 90-89.

To be clear, Pope didn’t utilize the 1-3-1 defense on every possession in the second half. If anything, it was brought out on every third or fourth possession on average — if that. And even then, Kentucky would almost immediately switch to man defense after a pass from Gonzaga. Only a couple of times did the 1-3-1 zone play out for an entire defensive possession.

But that was the plan, to mix up the defensive tactics just enough to throw Gonzaga off from what was a beautiful first half of offense by Mark Few‘s crew. It clearly worked. Gonzaga went from dropping 50 points in the first half to only 29 in the second. They shot 0-9 from deep in the second half.

“The execution that we wanted to do was just confuse them a little bit, slow them down a little bit, mess up their flow, and see how they reacted to it,” Kentucky fifth-year forward Ansley Almonor said on Tuesday. “They didn’t react that well. I think it worked.”

“Just to keep the offense off balance,” Sophomore center Brandon Garrison added. “They don’t know whether we’re in a zone, how fast we’re gonna get in man. If they call a zone play for instance and then we switch to man, it’ll mess up their whole offense. Just getting the offense off rhythm.”

This was the first time all season we truly saw Pope roll out a zone and go back to it, but it’s not anything his players weren’t prepared to execute. “We practice it every day,” Garrison said. It’s sort of like a ‘break-in-case-of-emergency’ type thing. Being down 16 points at the half in what was essentially a road game seems glass-breaking worthy to me. Pope’s guys were more than ready to handle the emergency, too.

“We practice that a good amount, for situations like that,” Almonor said. “When the opposing offense has good flow or they’re scoring a lot, just throw something different at them to see how they react to that. And it worked.”

Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.

Kentucky and Colgate will meet for the first time when the Raiders travel from Hamilton, New York, to Rupp Arena for Wednesday’s non-conference game. However, the game is years in the making, and it will be played in remembrance of a Colgate professor who passed away last year.

Ephraim Woods of Ashland, Kentucky, was a lifelong Kentucky Basketball fan. Even when his career took him to Colgate University in 2003, Woods followed the Wildcats from afar while adding Colgate to his college basketball fandom. Woods grew close to the Colgate program over the years, whether he was attending practices or leading Colgate’s faculty liaison program with student-athletes. Colgate head coach Matt Langel recalled what it was like having Woods, a chemistry professor, around the team in a story remembering Woods on Colgate’s website.

“He came around enough to make sure he knew the team and the team knew him,” Langel said. “With some individual players, he built a more personal relationship. But everybody knew who he was.”

Knowing Woods’ love for two college basketball teams, Langel made “several efforts” to schedule a game with Kentucky in recent years but couldn’t find a date on UK’s schedule until this season. The story says Woods’ family will travel with the team to Lexington in Ephraim Woods’ memory.

“Any time there’s a chance to reflect on all he accomplished, on the impact he had on my life and others’ lives, I like to do that,” Langel added. “In playing Kentucky, I’m sure taking the trip down there will be for me emotional in a good way, just a chance to reflect and remember all the lessons I learned from him.”

Big Blue Nation, I encourage you to head over to ColgateAthletics.com to read the full story on Woods and the game honoring him. And may the Woods family have a special experience in Lexington.

Go Cats, and in this case, Go Raiders, too.

[Colgate Honors Late Professor with Game at Kentucky]

“Remembering Ephraim Woods”

(via Patriot League on ESPN Productions)