{"id":418544,"date":"2026-01-20T10:52:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T10:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/418544\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T10:52:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T10:52:07","slug":"jacksonville-state-long-snapper-cole-marszalek-commits-to-kentucky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/418544\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville State long snapper Cole Marszalek commits to Kentucky"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kentucky <\/a>has signed a former five-star long snapper as Will Stein puts the final touches on his debut roster in Lexington. Jacksonville State\u2019s Cole Marszalek<\/a>, come on down! You are officially a Wildcat.<\/p>\n

A redshirt junior this past season for the Gamecocks, he played in all 13 games as JSU finished 9-5 on the year and made a run to the Conference USA Championship Game before taking down Troy 17-13 in the IS4S Salute to Veterans Bowl. <\/p>\n

Before that, he spent two seasons at Arizona State, redshirting in 2023 before emerging as the starter in 2024. He handled snapping duties on all field goal and punt attempts for the Big XII Championship squad that also earned a spot in the College Football Playoff. <\/p>\n

In high school, Marszalek was named a five-star long snapper by Kohl\u2019s Professional Camps and was rated as the No. 6 snapper in the country. Defensively, he was fifth on his team in tackles with 74 as a senior while adding 11 tackles for loss. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the second long snapper Stein has added this portal cycle, Marszalek joining Georgia State transfer Spencer Radnoti \u2014 a 6-3, 230-pound redshirt sophomore. He\u2019ll have three years of eligibility remaining after picking the Cats over Michigan.<\/p>\n

UK was in the market for long-snapping help after Alex McLaughlin<\/a>\u00a0concluded his Wildcat career in the fall.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, starting kicker\u00a0Jacob Kauwe<\/a>\u00a0previously announced his return for 2026 while Kentucky also added\u00a0USF kicker Adam Zouagui<\/a>. Murray State\u2019s\u00a0Tom O\u2019Hara<\/a> also signed with the Wildcats to take over at punter<\/p>\n

Wilson Berry returns to Kentucky<\/p>\n

Speaking of specialists, how about a surprise return decision from longtime punter-turned-holder Wilson Berry<\/a>? He\u2019s been a Wildcat since 2021, redshirting in year one before starting in four games as a redshirt freshman in 2022. He took over as the primary punter as a sophomore in 2023 for an average of 39.7 yards per punt in 13 games before being replaced by Aidan Laros<\/a> in 2024 and 2025. His role then transitioned to holder as a junior and senior, seeing action in all 24 games both seasons.<\/p>\n

Now, he\u2019s back for a sixth and final season in Lexington \u2014 his first under Will Stein \u2014 after being included on the official team roster on Monday. <\/p>\n

KSR has been delivering UK Sports news in the most ridiculous manner for almost two decades. Now, you can get even more coverage of the Cats with KSR+. As Will Stein wraps up transfer portal season for the Kentucky football program, now is the perfect time to join our online community. Subscribe now for premium articles, in-depth scouting reports, inside intel, bonus recruiting coverage, and access to KSBoard, our message board featuring thousands of Kentucky fans around the globe.\u00a0Come join the club right now for 50% off an annual subscription.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kentucky has signed a former five-star long snapper as Will Stein puts the final touches on his debut…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-418544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418544","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=418544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}