What happens next for Brock Vandagriff at UK could say much about offseason, next season

Kentucky football coaches and players know who will start at quarterback for the Wildcats against Tennessee on Saturday.

And while they have not yet announced that decision publicly, signs point toward Brock Vandagriff retaining his starting job.

“He’s very, very steady,” head coach Mark Stoops said of Vandagriff during Wednesday’s SEC coaches teleconference when asked how the Georgia transfer had responded to being benched in the second half against Auburn. “I’m sure, internally, he’s maybe a touch frustrated, maybe is motivated.

“I don’t know, but externally, on the field and when he’s around us, I mean, he’s like he always is. He’s very consistent. He’s a competitor. Any competitor would be bothered internally, but for him, it’s business as usual. What can I do to improve? How can I help this team? And I have no worries in that regard about Brock. He’s not a fragile young man. He works very hard. He’s a strong leader. And we just need to play well, and we need to help and support him with the way we play around him.”

Vandagriff has started every game for UK this season but has completed just 57.1% of his passes for 1,236 yards, six touchdowns and five interceptions. After completing 9 of 17 passes for 120 yards and one interception in the first half of a 24-10 loss to Auburn, Vandagriff was benched in favor of backup Gavin Wimsatt.

“Obviously, when you don’t play good, you don’t play,” Vandagriff said. “I obviously was not playing that well and didn’t play.”

Wimsatt has been used heavily as a wildcat quarterback throughout the season, but the Auburn game represented his first chance to run the full offense in a game where the outcome was still in doubt. The offense fared no better with him at quarterback, failing to score on his three drives in the second half.

With Stoops in Youngstown, Ohio, for his mother’s funeral, offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan declined to publicly name a starter for the Tennessee game at the normal Monday news conference but praised Vandagriff for his response to the benching.

“He’s never too high, never too low,” Hamdan said. “He’s a guy that understands what it takes to win in this conference. I think the biggest thing with him is consistency. I think in back-to-back games he’s made some plays.

“We’ve got to continue to build with him and continue our third down execution and things of that nature and continue that consistency and get better.”

Vandagriff was sacked twice on third downs against Auburn where he appeared to hold onto the ball for too long. His interception came on a badly underthrown pass on another third down, and coaches have acknowledged he made the incorrect read on other key plays in recent weeks.

But Vandagriff has not been helped by a porous offensive line and receivers who have dropped too many of his better throws. Both his interceptions in the loss at Florida bounced off the hands of Kentucky receivers before being picked off. Against Auburn, Vandagriff was robbed of a touchdown pass by a drop on the goal line.

Vandagriff did meet with reporters after Tuesday’s practice, while Wimsatt, who was one of two players available for interviews after the Auburn game, did not. Normal starting running back Demie Sumo-Kargnbaye was listed as probable on Wednesday’s availability report after missing the Auburn game, possibly lessening the need for a heavy dose of Wimsatt as a runner.

“Whenever that happens to yourself, you got to really look yourself in the mirror, things of that sort,” Vandagriff said of being benched. “And definitely some plays I wish I had back and just got to get better on third down.”

UK coaches have raved about Vandagriff’s maturity and leadership potential since he arrived on campus as a transfer from Georgia, so it should come as no surprise that he has handled his benching with professionalism.

But what happens next could be key to not only Kentucky’s dwindling chances of extending its eight-year bowl streak. How Vandagriff plays down the stretch will go a long way in determining whether Kentucky needs to look to the transfer portal for a quarterback for the third straight offseason.

Outside of injuries, UK has enjoyed a period of quarterback stability since Will Levis arrived on campus in 2021, but it was not uncommon for Stoops to reopen the quarterback competition during the season earlier in his UK tenure.

Terry Wilson was never technically benched in three years as UK’s starter, but Stoops did publicly open the competition in 2018 after Wilson threw for just 18 yards in a win over Vanderbilt. Wilson held onto the job and responded with a season-high 267 passing yards the next week against Missouri.

During the pandemic-altered 2020 season, Stoops again publicly acknowledged he would consider a quarterback switch after Wilson completed just 4 of 11 passes in a loss at Missouri, but Stoops was prevented from having to make a decision when a wrist injury sidelined Wilson from playing the next week against Georgia. With Joey Gatewood starting that game, UK did not score a single touchdown, and Wilson returned to the starting job after the Wildcats’ bye two weeks later.

Two different quarterbacks started multiple games during Stoops’ first season at UK in 2013. Stoops benched starter Patrick Towles late in the 2015 season in favor of redshirt freshman Drew Barker. Barker was then benched early in the 2016 season, in part due to an injury, in favor of junior college transfer Stephen Johnson.

The in-season threat to their starting job ended up being foreshadowing for Wilson, Towles and Barker as all three quarterbacks left Kentucky before their eligibility expired. (Wilson and Towles transferred while Barker retired after first announcing plans to transfer).

But it is not unprecedented for a Kentucky quarterback to be benched and then bounce back to take on a starring role. Mike Hartline threw for 3,178 yards in 2010 after losing his starting job two years earlier. Andre Woodson turned into one of the best quarterbacks in program history after being passed by Curtis Pulley in spring practice before his junior season.

Both Vandagriff and Wimsatt have another year of eligibility remaining after 2024, but in the era of free transfers there is no guarantee it will be spent at Kentucky. With much-hyped freshman Cutter Boley also on the roster, Stoops and his staff will need to determine who gives the offense the best chance in 2025, and if either of the veterans finds himself on the bench a transfer would seem likely. Boley could play in the final three games of the regular season after UK’s November bye and not lose his redshirt.

Vandagriff is not troubling himself with any worries of the future this week. The focus has to be on Tennessee and Tennessee alone. While he declined to tell reporters the quarterback plan versus the Volunteers, he said he was not approaching the week like he was locked in a competition for the starting job.

“Whether you’re the one, you’re the five, six, whatever, doesn’t matter,” Vandagriff said. “Kind of just that same mindset going in every day at practice, making sure you know the game plan. Making sure you know what these guys look like on film.

“... We all know the plan, but we’re all gonna go in there — whether it’s a crazy plan, it’s not a crazy plan, whatever it is — and attack practice every day.”

Saturday

Kentucky at No. 7 Tennessee

When: 7:45 p.m.

TV: SEC Network

Records: Kentucky 3-5 (1-5 SEC), Tennessee 6-1 (3-1 SEC)

Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1

Series: Tennessee leads 84-26-9

Last meeting: Tennessee won 33-27 on Oct. 28, 2023, in Lexington

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