{"id":384898,"date":"2026-01-03T05:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T05:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/384898\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T05:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T05:32:07","slug":"kentucky-football-hosting-visitors-during-first-transfer-portal-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/384898\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky Football Hosting Visitors During First Transfer Portal Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

The college football transfer portal is officially open for business. Will Stein<\/a> may have spent his morning coaching the Oregon offense in an Orange Bowl win, but he has all hands on deck to assemble his first Kentucky football roster. The Kentucky head coach flew from Miami to Lexington as the Wildcats prepare to host dozens of players over the weekend.<\/p>\n

This roster has many needs to fill, and it\u2019s clear they\u2019re making the Big Blue Wall a priority. Once one of the most dominant units in the SEC, Kentucky has been on the wrong side of a war of attrition and will now have to replace five offensive line starters. During each of Stein\u2019s three years at Oregon, his offensive line was a Joe Moore Award finalist, considered among the top three units in the sport. <\/p>\n

Kentucky is attacking a position of need on the first day of free agency. Among the first batch of transfer portal visitors, three are offensive tackles from the SEC. This is just the beginning. <\/p>\n

More players from the transfer portal will be traveling to the Joe Craft Football Training Facility over the weekend. We\u2019re updating the list below as we learn about more and more players who are visiting the Wildcats. <\/p>\n

Xavier Chaplin<\/a>, Offensive Tackle, Auburn, 6-7, 350<\/p>\n

Chaplin is bringing plenty of accolades with him from the transfer portal. The left tackle began his career at Virginia Tech. In his first season as a starter, he earned Third Team All-American honors from College Football News. The following year, he was an All-ACC Honorable Mention selection<\/a>. He transferred to Auburn for the 2025 season and started all 13 games at left tackle. He has one year of eligibility remaining. <\/p>\n

Tyree Adams<\/a>, Offensive Tackle, LSU, 6-7, 310<\/p>\n

After appearing in eight games and starting in two as a redshirt freshman, Adams earned the role of starting left tackle for the LSU Tigers entering the 2025 season. He started the first eight games before he was sidelined for more than a month with an injury. Adams returned to play in the regular season finale against Oklahoma and in the bowl game against Houston. He only allowed 11 pressures in nine games. Adams has two years of eligibility remaining. <\/p>\n

Ory Williams<\/a>, Offensive Tackle, LSU, 6-8, 335<\/p>\n

The Texas native saw action last fall as a redshirt freshman. He played left and right tackle for the Tigers. When injuries piled up, Williams logged starts at left tackle against Arkansas and Western Kentucky. He has three years of eligibility remaining. <\/p>\n

Tavion Wallace<\/a>, Linebacker, Arkansas, 6-1, 240<\/p>\n

Kentucky fans know his brother well. Trevin Wallace<\/a> produced one of the loudest crowd pops in Kroger Field history when he returned a blocked kick for a touchdown against Florida. Even if he didn\u2019t leave school early to become a third-round selection, he could not have played at UK with his younger brother. Like Trevin, Tavion was a Blue Chip, All-American talent in high school. He\u2019ll have four seasons of eligibility after redshirting this fall in Fayetteville. <\/p>\n

Marquis Johnson<\/a>, Wide Receiver, Missouri, 5-11, 187<\/p>\n

Johnson has made plays at Kroger Field before. He caught the fake punt pass touchdown<\/a> for Missouri that essentially served as the beginning of the end for Mark Stoops. He had at least 300 receiving yards in each of his three seasons at Missouri, accumulating 66 career receptions for 1,075 yards and six receiving touchdowns. 2026 will be his final college football season. <\/p>\n

Want more Kentucky football intel? <\/a>Join KSR Plus for the chaotic transfer portal season right now and receive 50% off an annual subscription.<\/a><\/p>\n

Friday Evening Update<\/p>\n

CJ Baxter<\/a>, Running Back, Texas, 6-1, 227<\/p>\n

Coleton Price<\/a>, Center, Baylor, 6-3, 318<\/p>\n

Hunter Osborne<\/a>, Defensive Lineman, Virginia, 6-4, 301<\/p>\n

Ian Geffrard<\/a>, Defensive Lineman, Arkansas, 6-5, 387<\/p>\n

Michai Boreau<\/a>, Defensive Lineman, Florida, 6-5, 350<\/p>\n

Hasaan Sykes<\/a>, Cornerback, Western Carolina, 6-0, 185 (Jan. 3)<\/p>\n

Ahmad Breaux<\/a>, Defensive Lineman, LSU, 6-3, 280 (Jan. 3)<\/p>\n

Anthony Hawkins<\/a>, Safety, Villanova, 6-3, 195 (Jan. 4)<\/p>\n

Kourtney Kelly<\/a>, Defensive Lineman, West Georgia, 6-3, 280 (Jan. 7)<\/p>\n

Tae Woody<\/a>, Defensive Lineman, ULM, 6-3, 290 (Jan. 7)<\/p>\n

Kamauryn Morgan<\/a>, Outside Linebacker, Baylor, 6-5, 250 (Jan. 9)<\/p>\n

Quentin Taylor<\/a>, Cornerback, Iowa State, 6-0, 205 (TBD)<\/p>\n

Khalil Poteat<\/a>, Defensive Lineman, Temple, 6-5, 280 (TBD)<\/p>\n

Malcolm Simmons<\/a>, Wide Receiver, Auburn, 6-0, 170 (TBD)<\/p>\n

Sam Leavitt<\/a>, Quarterback, Arizona State, 6-2, 195 (TBD)<\/p>\n

James Jones<\/a>, Running Back, Delaware State, 6-2, 205 (TBD)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The college football transfer portal is officially open for business. Will Stein may have spent his morning coaching…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,187416,398,396,397,187417,99,187418,130269,187419],"class_list":{"0":"post-384898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-marquis-johnson-23-dickinson","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-ncaafootball","13":"tag-ory-williams-24-san-marcos","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-tavion-wallace-25-wayne-county","16":"tag-tyree-adams-23-st-augustine","17":"tag-xavier-chaplin-22-whale-branch"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}