By LARRY VAUGHT
Jalen Geiger insists he’s back “100 percent” from the season-ending knee injury he suffered against Florida last season and is even better than before.
“For myself, I have high expectations coming off my injury and want to show I am better than I was before the injury. I have a little chip on my shoulder,” said Geiger, a junior defensive back who played in 13 games in 2021 during his sophomore year and had 18 tackles and an interception return for a touchdown.
“It is tough when you are not out there playing. When you are out there with your guys playing the sport you love and you can’t it’s tough. But I had to step up and be a leader and coach the guys who stepped in for me. I knew I couldn’t get sad or get down on myself. I just had to be there for my brothers when they needed me.”
Defensive coordinator Brad White felt Geiger looked fresh going into preseason practice and is expecting big things out of him. So is Geiger’s dad, a retired military man.
“My dad expects a lot out of me really but all that does is make me play harder,” Geiger said.
His parents’ military service resulted in him attending six schools in 12 years. While that might seem like a hardship, Jalen Geiger found it to be a positive experience.
“I gained a lot of friends going to different schools. I have a lot of friends now. I tried to look at the positives and not the negatives of moving schools,” the UK defensive back said.
He lived in Korea from age 5 to 9 but the thing he remembers the most is that the “food was really good” all the time.
”There was no tackle football, but he played flag football. “Flag football was too easy over there and I dominated that,” he said. “I also played basketball and it was very competitive.”
“I don’t want to brag but I think I was a pretty good basketball player growing up. Actually basketball was my first love and then I started to play football and got a passion for it.”
He also has a passion for community service and was named to the SEC Community Service Good Works Team. He’s been a mentor at a Lexington elementary school, read to first graders at another elementary school, volunteered to mentor children at the Citrus Bowl when Kentucky played in the bowl game, volunteered to pack food bats when UK played in the Belk Bowl and has helped God’s Pantry in Lexington.
“I love giving back. I love inspiring kids and knowing I can have an impact on them. It feels so good to me to do that,” Geiger said.
He’s also starting to pick up a few cooking recipes from his father, Tony, who loves tailgating at every UK game.
“He can throw it down. He loves cooking. His tailgates, he looks forward to that more than the games honestly. He loves them,” Geiger said. “He loves to cook and have fun, and play music. Any fan ought to go to my dad’s tailgate before games. He can cook anywhere, any place. As long as there is a stove and some pots and pans, he’s going to cook.
“Once he retired, he started picking up more cooking. He is trying to teach me a few recipes. I am learning but I am not too good.”
Geiger did learn some valuable lessons last season when he was injured and could only watch his teammates play.
“I learned not to take anything for granted. It showed me how fast things can get taken away from you,” Geiger said. “Every day I go out there and go full speed because you never know when it might be over and it could be your last play or game.”
It’s one thing to take 3-point shots. It’s another thing to make 3-point shots.
“The number of 3’s Kentucky will take will be a direct relationship to how many shotmakers that John (Calipari) has,” said ESPN college basketball analyst Seth Greenberg.
Greenberg does think from what he saw in UK’s four games in Canada along with conversations he’s had with Calipari that the Cats will take more 3-pointers this year.
“They are going to play faster and will shoot more 3’s. I am not saying they will shoot 30 (per game) but it is going to be more of the makeup of this team,” Greenberg said. “They are a good passing team. They move the basketball. They will get paint touches and make the extra pass to get guys open looks.”
That could really benefit super senior Antonio Reeves, UK’s best 3-point threat last season and one of the best in the Southeastern Conference.
“Guys are going to create and get him the ball. He can either knock it down or drive it, “Greenberg said. “In transition he can get out and get open which could be really important.
“He’s an elite, elite shooter, but he’s playing with guys now who can make plays to get him more open shots. When you’ve got four or five floor gamers on the court, it creates spacing — as long as those guys can shoot. Floor games create spacing and Antonio is a guy I think will really take advantage of that spacing.”
Quarterback Devin Leary transferred to Kentucky to learn from offensive coordinator Liam Coen but he’s developed a give-and-take relationship quickly with his new coach.
“As a player to a coach, I’ve always been taught and raised to sit back and learn and make sure that if I’m being coached I want to be coached as anyone on the entire team,” Leary said.
“But at the same time, me being an older guy, now going into my sixth year, I’ve had a lot of snaps under my belt that he’s able to listen to me at times, too, which is a really cool perspective from a quarterback.”
Leary understands that Coen has a perspective he doesn’t — or maybe most college offensive coordinators do not — because of his time in the NFL.
“He’s seen it at the highest level being around Matt Stafford, Jared Goff, so I always want to learn as much as I can from him, but pick his brain on what I could do better, too,” Leary said. “So I think it’s been a cool relationship.”
If former UK quarterback Freddie Maggard is right, it could turn out even better than that. On Kentucky Sports Radio, he said he would take Leary over any other SEC quarterback and said he “will be the best quarterback Mark Stoops has coached at Kentucky” even though both Terry Wilson and Will Levis led UK to 17 wins.
“There’s going to be quarterbacks that throw for more yards, more touchdowns and have more accolades based on scheme and system,” Maggard said on KSR. “As fas efficiency of what I would look for in a quarterback, I wouldn’t take any other signal-caller in the conference over Devin Leary.”
Sometimes accomplishments that should probably matter the most do not receive nearly enough recognition. Kentucky had a school-record 12 athletes — tied for fourth in the nation among 363 Division I schools — named to the official Academic All-America teams by the College Sports Communicators during the 2022-23 school year
The previous best at UK was 10 during the 2020-21 school year.
It’s not easy to be an academic all-American. It requires a sophomore or higher to have a career grade-point average of at least 3.5 and also be a starter or important reserve for his or her team. Anyone who meets those standards is named to the academic all-district team before a national vote is conducted to pick the All-Americans.
Four of UK’s most successful athletes during the 2022-23 school year made the list.
Quarterback Will Levis, a second-round NFL draft pick, was named the Academic All-American of the Year in his sport. Translation: He was the top student-athlete among all NCAA Division I football players.
Kayla Kowalik, UK’s all-time softball hits leader, was a first-team All-American. So was golfer Laney Frye who had one of the best seasons in UK history. Shortstop Erin Coffel, who should become UK’s all-time leader in home runs and RBIs in 2024, was a third team pick.
Others honored were Caitlin Brooks (swimming), Ben Damge (soccer), Izzy Gatti (swimming), Jackson Gray (baseball), Luis Grassow (soccer), Lauren Poole (swimming), Josh Sabot (track) and Anna Havens Rice (swimming).
Kentucky has had 143 academic all-Americans, 18th all-time in Division I and since 2000 has had 106, 10th best among Division I schools.
Kentucky offensive coordinator Liam Coen understands the attention quarterback Devin Leary along with receivers Barion Brown and Dane Key are getting going into the season because of their past production.
However, Coen recently talked about several other players who could play key/surprising roles with the offense.
Freshman tight end Khamari Anderson of Detroit — Deone Walker’s high school teammates — is getting as many reps in practice as he “can functionally handle” this early in his career.
“As much as he can handle, he will do (in practice),” Coen said. “We have a deep tight end room but you always deal with nicks and bruises. It looks great now but at some point some (tight ends) are going to be banged up. That depth is so important for the longevity of our season.
“I would love to get him in (games) but not at the expense of losing his redshirt (season). “He can play four games (and still redshirt). The health of other guys and his ability to learn and keep executing will determine how much playing time he gets.”
Junior right tackle Jeremy Flax has played in 23 games the last two seasons, including when he made 12 starts last year. He is battling USC transfer Courtland Ford for a starting berth this season.
Coen thinks he has gotten a lot better and has done a “great job getting removal” in the run game.
“We have got to feel good about it so Devin can just drop back and throw. We got to be able to get to the point where we can drop back and pass and not worry about the right side (blocking). The best player, the guy who gives up the least sacks, is going to play.”
Redshirt sophomore running back La’Vell Wright ran 39 times for 120 yards and had six catches for 28 yards while playing in all 13 games last season.
“He is a great kid who has been nicked up in his career. I had not seen a ton of La’Vell coming into training camp,” Coen said. “The more we can get out of La’Vell, the more he will play. It just depends on his consistency.”
Coen has no worries about Northern Illinois transfer Marques Cox who is being counted on to anchor the line at left tackle.
“He is so consistent with his attitude, his effort, the way he comes out every single day. He is a fun guy to be around. He’s alway smiling but he is serious about football,” Coen said. “As consistent as he was in the spring, that has continued through training camp.”
Quote of the Week: “They are going to make my job very difficult in a good way. They are going to give themselves a chance to play with their physicality and speed. They just do things naturally other people can’t. They also bring enormous character to our program,” UK volleyball coach Craig Skinner on his five freshmen.
Quote of the Week 2: “He has elite speed, cutting ability and great hands. It will be fun to see how he’s used in college,” football recruiting analyst Dave Berk on UK freshman receiver Anthony Brown.
Quote of the Week 3: “This team has to share the ball. He may go with who is the hot hand and who is the mismatch but this team has so many players who do so many things. It could be just looking for a weak point in that defense and that’s what you go after. I think every game it could be somebody different stepping up to lead the team,” WTVQ-TV sports director Jeff Piecoro on John Calipari’s team.