LEXINGTON, Ky. – University of Kentucky football head coach Joker Phillips has announced that redshirt freshman wide receiver Daryl Collins and true freshman punter Landon Foster have been named game captains for Kentucky’s Southeastern Conference matchup on Saturday at Arkansas at 7 p.m. ET
Game captains are usually chosen on the basis of performance in the previous game. Collins had a good game for Kentucky last weekend against Mississippi State, catching three passes for 31 yards. For the season, Collins is fourth on the team in receiving with 13 catches for 133 yards. His longest reception of the season is a 22-yarder.
Foster has had a solid first season as the punter for the Wildcats, averaging 41.3 yards per punt. As a team, Kentucky ranks sixth in the conference in net punting. Against Mississippi State, Foster kicked well, launching eight punts for an average of 43.8. The freshman pinned the Bulldogs inside their own 20-yard line three times and had four punts of at least 50 yards.
Collins and Foster will join permanent game captains Matt Smith and Collins Ukwu.
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Warford, Williamson are Mid-Season All-SEC: Offensive guard Larry Warford and linebacker Avery Williamson have been chosen to the Mid-Season All-Southeastern Conference teams selected by Phil Steele’s College Football. Warford is a first-team choice and Williamson is on the third team.
Warford, who is also a second-team Mid-Season All-America pick by the Steele magazine, has been outstanding this season against what is currently rated the nation’s fifth-toughest schedule. The senior from Richmond, Ky., leads the team with 26 knockdown blocks in the first six games. He was named Southeastern Conference Lineman of the Week following UK’s win over Kent State in which he graded at 91.7 percent and helped limit Roosevelt Nix, former Mid-America Conference Defensive Player of the Year, to only two assisted tackles.
Williamson leads the SEC in total tackles (64) and is second in the league in tackles per game. He has added an interception, a fumble recovery and has caused one fumble.
Fountain of Youth: Here are more notes on the youth and inexperience of the Kentucky football team.
UK is fifth in the nation for most true freshmen played with 14 and only one behind four teams who are tied for first with 15 true frosh played.
UK is third in the nation for most total freshmen (true and redshirt frosh) played with 26, only two behind the national leader.
Phillips noted after Thursday’s practice that 23 of the 30 defensive players traveling to the Arkansas game will be freshmen or sophomores.
Kentucky’s two-deep in the defensive backfield features one senior, one sophomore and six true freshmen, two of whom are walk-ons.
In a blog post earlier in the week, Kyle Tucker of the Louisville Courier-Journal researched and wrote that UK leads the SEC with 26 freshmen and sophomores in the two-deep and UK also leads the league with 11 freshman and sophomore starters. (Interesting to note that by the end of the week, UK now has 12 freshman and sophomore starters.)
Dermontti Dawson Day on Saturday, Oct. 20 vs. Georgia: The University of Kentucky football team will honor recent Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee and UK football legend Dermontti Dawson on Saturday, Oct. 20 with Dermontti Dawson Day at Commonwealth Stadium. The Wildcats will battle Southeastern Conference foe Georgia in the game with kickoff set for 7 p.m. ET. The game will also serve as UK’s annual Homecoming.
Dawson, who played at Kentucky from 1984-87, will be on hand for the game, including signing autographs in the Wildcat Refuge two hours before kickoff. Dawson will also be honored on the field during the game, while the first 10,000 fans in the stadium will receive a Dermontti Dawson rally towel.
