Kentucky
Spring Briefing: New offense should not change much for Kentucky tight ends
Jeff Lebby full Interview with Andy Staples | Arriving in Starkville, Learning Along the Way | 02.15.24
Preparations for the 2024 college football season are already underway at the Joe Craft Football Training Facility. The hiring of Boise State offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan means that Kentucky’s offense will be staying in the pro-style family. That is good news for Vince Marrow‘s position room.
The Wildcats are scheduled to have five scholarship tight ends on the roster in 2024, and four of them will be suited up for spring practice. Once again, this positional unit will have a sizable role in the offense.
In KSR’s Spring Briefing series, we will cover every position on Kentucky’s roster before spring practice begins. Next up is tight end where the Wildcats have experience and excellent depth.
Spring Rundown: Quarterback, Tailback, Wide Receiver
The Room
Jordan Dingle (6-4, 238, Redshirt Junior)
After flirting with Tennessee in the transfer portal, the Bowling Green (Ky.) High product is back for year four in Lexington. Dingle has recorded 34 receptions for 544 yards and three touchdowns in his career and will again play a key role for this offense.
Josh Kattus (6-4, 231 Junior)
The Cincinnati (Ohio) Moeller product had some issues with penalties last season but still is a quality blocker in Kentucky’s pro-style scheme and can be a solid intermediate weapon in the play-action passing game. Kattus will again have a big role in this offense.
Khamari Anderson (6-5, 238, Sophomore)
Another recruiting win for Kentucky out of Detroit (Mich.) Cass Tech, Anderson flashed in year one as a potential two-way tight end in the SEC. Expect the former four-star recruit to have a bigger role on offense after playing 64 offensive snaps in year one.
Tanner Lemaster (6-5, 253, Redshirt Freshman)
Another Ohio native, Lemaster took a redshirt season in year one and will look to find a role in year two. At 250-plus pounds, the class of 2023 prospect could give Kentucky another blocking tight end to utilize in heavy sets.
Willie Rodriguez (6-3, 235, Freshman)
Auburn and Tennessee made a late run at the Covington (Ky.) Catholic tight end who ultimately signed with Kentucky. Rodriguez is a legit two-way prospect who might be hard to keep off the field. The class of 2024 signee will not be on campus until the summer.
Top Storyline: How big of a role will the tight end position have in the new offense?
Kentucky is going to stay in the pro-style structure on offense under new play-caller Bush Hamdan. The former Boise State offensive coordinator is going to bring a no-huddle approach to the Joe Craft Football Training Facility, but do not expect this to be a full-out spread offense.
Kentucky will use the tight end position. Hamdan has featured a tight end in the passing game at Washington with Harrison Bryant recording 52 receptions for 825 yards. Will that happen in 2024? That is to be determined.
One thing we do know is this positional unit will be utilized. How big of a role will this group have? We should find out soon.
What to Watch: Jordan Dingle’s passing game involvement
If there was a player that could see a heavier involvement in the passing game it would be the oldest player in the room. Jordan Dingle is Kentucky’s most accomplished receiver at the tight end position and has produced 18 explosive receptions in 54 career targets. That is notable.
Dingle has All-SEC potential and could emerge as a key target for Bush Hamdan’s passing offense and a safety blanket for new quarterback Brock Vandagriff. Monitoring his usage during the spring could tell us how heavily involved the tight end position will be this season.
Bold Prediction: Usage rate of the tight end position will be high even if passing game targets do not come
Kentucky’s offense has a lot of mouths to feed at the wide receiver position. Barion Brown, Dane Key, and Ja’Mori Maclin each have WR1 potential for the Wildcats. The offense will also have an establish the run mindset. Kentucky will not be an operation that leads the SEC in pass play percentage. Not everyone can get targets.
I would not expect a huge receiving season from any of Kentucky’s tight ends, but that does not mean lack a of snaps for this position. The Wildcats will still value the tight end position and will carve out a role for this position. Vince Marrow’s group will play a key role in the run game, will factor in the play-action passing game, and will have a good volume of snaps in the new offense.
Kentucky
Several people hurt in Western Kentucky Parkway multi-car accident, officials say
MUHLENBERG, Ky. (WFIE) – Kentucky officials says there are multiple people injured in a three-car accident on Western Kentucky Parkway.
According to a post made by the Central City Fire Department, three vehicles were involved in a crash between the 64 and 65 mile markers eastbound of the parkway.
They say both the eastbound and westbound lanes are closed at this time. The closure should last around 3 hours.
Two people were extricated from a vehicle. Four adults and three juveniles are being taken to the hospital. No update has been given on their conditions.
They say a mass casualty incident was declared, and Ohio County Fire and EMS were called to the scene due to the number of patients.
We will update you when we learn more.
Copyright 2025 WFIE. All rights reserved.
Kentucky
2027 top in-state prospect talks about his Kentucky unofficial visit on Tuesday
Kentucky’s recruiting efforts in the 2026 class have hit a current rough patch, but things are looking promising in the 2027 class, as the staff has already casted a very wide net in the class, with a number of top targets in the fold. As they’re continuing to pursue mostly national targets, a local star is now on the staff’s radar.
2027 in-state guard Braxton Keathley, one of the state’s top prospects even regardless of class, took an unofficial visit to Kentucky on Tuesday for the game against NC Central. Keathley is native of Martin County, KY, and has took the state by storm as he has really stuffed the stat sheet. Just recently, he dropped a triple-double of 34 points, 12 assists, and 10 rebounds last weekend.
The Kentucky staff has certainly seemed to take notice really quickly. He’s also getting plenty of other interest, too, including having frequent contact with Louisville, LSU, Purdue, South Carolina, and Florida State, plus offers from Eastern Kentucky, UT Martin, Ohio, and Bowling Green, among others. Keathley sat down with Kentucky Wildcats on SI to talk about his recent visit to Kentucky. What were his impressions of the staff? He shared a conversation he had with them before Tuesday’s game. He also had some interactions with others, too.
“They really talked about how well I scored it and how they’ve been hearing about me for a long time,” Keathley said of his conversation with the Kentucky staff. “One of the (Kentucky) assistants mentioned he had a coaching friend tell them that they better jump on me quick cause I was really good. I had several fans come up to me and take pictures. Jack Givens welcomed me and talked to me for a little bit and said he’s highly impressed with my game and plans on coming to a game soon. A couple of other UK players came up, they were really nice and said they been keeping up with me.”
As a Kentucky kid, Keathley says he been a fan of the Wildcats since he was little, even getting to train with Tyrese Maxey this summer, and he also had some great things to say about what he saw from fellow Kentucky natives and current Wildcats Trent Noah, Jasper Johnson, and Malachi Moreno. “I looked up to players like Tyler Herro, SGA, Tyrese Maxey, Devin Booker, Malik Monk and Reed Sheppard. I got lucky that I got to train with Maxey for a week in August,” Keathley said. “I saw Trent Noah last night having great energy and keeping a smile on his face during warmups. You could tell he loved every minute wearing that Kentucky uniform. He cares and it shows. I saw Jasper and Moreno warming up hard. The one thing about it, and my dad always told me, it’s a different place. You got to be special to play there and be willing to accept everything that comes with wearing that jersey.”
Interestingly enough, Keathley’s dad coached former Kentucky greats Anthony Epps and Wayne Turner after their time at Kentucky, so Keathley has a family history of being around all that comes with the passion of Kentucky basketball. What did Keathley’s dad learn about the two former Wildcats he got the privilege to coach? “He said they carried a chip on their shoulder and were great leaders always humble but tough. and I have to do the same.” Now, for Keathley, it’s about climbing the ranks nationally. “A couple (recruiting services) don’t have me ranked yet and that’s ok. I’m going to walk in the gym every night and know I outworked you and I’m going to outplay you,” he said. “I’m going to compete like every game is a championship. I’m going to to play with the same passion that the fans have. I’m always all in there’s no going back or in-between.”
Keathley has so much passion for his community in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, and he has plans of doing big things at Martin County. He also shared a message Trent Noah’s dad had for him during their interaction at Tuesday’s Kentucky game. “Something he said that really stuck out. ‘Us mountain people have got to stick together.’ He’s right, Eastern Kentucky has great people and basketball players. Kentucky basketball as whole, we got to stick together through the highs and lows. That’s what we do.”
That’s a great message from a parent of a current Wildcat who was in his shoes before, being a fellow native of that part of the state. The Kentucky staff is certainly going to keep an eye on him as he continues the impressive run he is on so far this season, because he just continues to catch more and more people’s attention with his play.
Kentucky
Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie introduces legislation for U.S. to leave NATO – UPI.com
Dec. 10 (UPI) — U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican serving a House district in Kentucky, introduced legislation for the United States to pull out of NATO.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican from Florida, posted on X that she would be a co-sponsor of the Not a Trusted Organization Act, or NATO Act. Utah Republican Mike Lee introduced the same legislation in the Senate earlier this year.
“NATO is a Cold War relic,” Massie said in a statement Tuesday. “We should withdraw from NATO and use that money to defend our own country, not socialist countries.
“NATO was created to counter the Soviet Union, which collapsed over 30 years ago. Since then, U.S. participation has cost taxpayers trillions of dollars and continues to risk U.S. involvement in foreign wars.”
He added: “Our Constitution did not authorize permanent foreign entanglements, something our Founding Fathers explicitly warned us against. America should not be the world’s security blanket – especially when wealthy countries refuse to pay for their own defense.”
NATO was founded in 1949 by 12 members as a military alliance involving European nations, as well as the U.S. and Canada in North America. There are now 32 members, with Finland joining in 2023 and Sweden in 2024.
The NATO Act would prevent the use of U.S. taxpayer funds for NATO’s common budgets, including its civil budget, military budget and the Security Investment Program.
Article 13 of the North Atlantic Treaty allows nations to opt out.
“After the Treaty has been in force for 20 years, any Party may cease to be a Party one year after its notice of denunciation has been given to the Government of the United States of America, which will inform the Governments of the other Parties of the deposit of each notice of denunciation,” the treaty reads.
During the last NATO summit in The Hague, the Netherlands, President Donald Trump told reporters he agrees with NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense treaty.
“I stand with it. That’s why I’m here,” Trump said. “If I didn’t stand with it, I wouldn’t be here.”
Article 5 was invoked for the first time after the 9/11 attacks in the United States, leading to NATO’s involvement in Afghanistan.
The Kentucky Republican, who calls himself a “fiscal hawk” and a “constitutional conservative,” has been at odds with Trump on several issues, including fiscal spending, foreign policy/war powers, government surveillance and transparency.
Trump has also been critical of NATO.
During his 2016 election campaign, Trump called the alliance “obsolete.”
He urged nations to spend at least 3.5% of gross domestic product on core defense needs by 2035.
In June, NATO allies agreed to a new defense spending guideline to invest 5% of GDP annually in defense and security by 2035.
Five nations were above 3% in 2024: Poland at 4.12%, Estonia at 3.43%, U.S. at 3.38%, Latvia at 3.15% and Greece at 3.08%. In last is Spain with 1.28% though Iceland has no armed forces and Sweden wasn’t listed.
Some Republican senators want stronger involvement in the alliance, including Joni Ernst of Iowa and Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi. Wicker is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
For passage, a House majority is needed, but 60 of 100 votes in the Senate to break the filibuster and then a majority vote. Trump could also veto the bill.
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