Brock Vandagriff’s teammates have one piece of advice for Kentucky QB after first start

jon hale

Thu, Sep 5, 2024, 7:15 a.m.·5 min read

With Will Levis in attendance for Kentucky football’s season opener against Southern Miss, the Wildcats’ latest transfer quarterback did a fitting impression of the now Tennessee Titans starter.

Like Levis, Georgia transfer Brock Vandagriff arrived at UK with a reputation as a threat to make plays both with his legs and arm, but most of the preseason talk about quarterback run plays centered around a possible wildcat package for backup Gavin Wimsatt.

In the lightning-shortened opener, Vandagriff took on the rushing burden himself. Just two plays into his first college start, he evoked the essence of Levis by refusing to slide after earning a first down on a second-and-7 carry, instead taking a hard hit to his legs to gain an extra yard.

“There are two rules, going back to high school and playing with my dad: third down and going for a touchdown, you are going to try to go get that extra yard,” Vandagriff said after the 31-0 victory. “Maybe I was just a little amped up going into tonight or something, but just trying to make some plays for the boys.”

Kentucky quarterback Brock Vandagriff totaled 35 rushing yards on five carries in the lightning-shortened season opening win over Southern Miss.

By the end of the first quarter, Vandagriff had recorded three first downs with his legs on runs of 9, 14 and 11 yards. Two runs later in the game went for no gain and 1 yard. He also took multiple hits on throws where he uncorked a pass just before contact from a rusher.

Of those plays, only the third rush — an 11-yard carry on third-and-8 — came with the need to extend a drive on the line. That time, Vandagriff lowered his shoulder around the first-down marker and piled through a defender to ensure he advanced the chains.

“I loved it,” wide receiver Ja’Mori Maclin said. “He had me hyped up. But I went to him on the sideline, I was like, ‘Bro, I need you to stop taking all those hits. Like, we need you. This only the first game. We got a long season.’

“That’s just his competitive nature. He’s tough. He’s a really tough guy.”

Kentucky fans familiar with Levis’ willingness to plow through or jump over a defender need no reminder of what energy a quarterback willing to invite contact can bring to a game.

But the Levis experience also offered a telling reminder of the risk inherent with that playing style.

Levis made it through his first UK season unscathed, but a series of injuries resulting from hard hits derailed his final year as a Wildcat. While the most jarring of those hits came while Levis was still in the pocket due to poor pass protection, the cumulative effect of hits from designed runs or scrambles added up too.

“I just think in some ways, there’s a part where you got to pick and choose your spots,” offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan said. “When it was third-and-8 and Brock lowered his shoulder and got us 9 yards, it’s a physical game and you got to do what you got to do. But I think on some of those first and second down runs where there’s opportunities to get down, you got to do so.”

It cannot be ignored that Vandagriff is still working to prove himself as a quarterback-for-hire in a new program after sitting on the bench for three years at Georgia. The former five-star prospect is undoubtedly itching to prove his high school recruiting hype was justified, but more importantly he has to be cognizant of the respect he is earning from new teammates.

And just like Levis when he arrived as a transfer from Penn State, Vandagriff clearly caught the eye of the returning Wildcats with the way he put his body on the line in the opener.

“I’m not surprised,” center Eli Cox said. “That’s just the type of guy he is. I think you can see that. And that’s kind of like just the way I think he leads. Like, he’s willing to put it on the line for the team.

“Now, obviously he can slide every now and then, because we need him for a long season, but it juices us up when we see a quarterback get his nose in there.”

The challenge for Vandagriff grows starting this week with the first SEC game.

South Carolina edge rushers Kyle Kennard and Dylan Stewart combined for four sacks in the Gamecocks’ opening win over Old Dominion. Vandagriff showed an impressive ability to keep plays alive by moving around in the pocket before finding an open receiver downfield against Southern Miss, but those opportunities might be less frequent with defenders like Kennard and Stewart in the backfield Saturday.

Hamdan might still elect to take some of the running burden off Vandagriff by using Wimsatt, who did not play in the weather-shortened opener, but Vandagriff will still be a factor on designed runs or scrambles.

And Kentucky will need him to find a balance between hyping teammates and fans and avoiding unnecessary contact.

“With a kid like that, who’s so bought in and 3,000% wanting to prove it to his teammates, it’s almost the other way,” Hamdan said. “You got to prove it to them that you’re willing to step out of bounds and play the next play.

“And sometimes those guys just got to go through it to learn that.”