2026 Kentucky Wildcats

[Don Wassall]

Kentucky has started 11, 8, 3, 4, 3, 8, 8. 4, 5, 6, 5, 3, 4, 6, 4, 3, 4, 4, and 6 whites since 2005, with a few years missing. This year they hit an all-time low of just 2 Whites starters currently listed on OurLads’ depth chart.

Colton Price is the starting center, while Finnish born Olaus Alinen starts at left guard. Hayes Johnson is the backup center, with RT Max Anderson completing Kentucky’s tiny contingent of White linemen.

Freshman Mark Ponatoski is the third string quarterback. Henry Boyer is second on the depth chart at tight end.

There’s not a single White player on defense going three deep. By my cipherin’, there’s exactly 6 White players out of the top 63 listed on offense and defense. Thirty-six year-old Will Stein was hired as the Wildcats’ new head coach in December.

QB: Mark Ponatoski
C: Colton Price, Hayes Johnson
LG: Olaus Alinen
RT: Max Anderson
TE: Henry Boyer

 

[Jimmy Chitwood]

Don, obviously this makes complete sense.

the state university’s football roster is just reflecting the state’s demographics since Kentucky’s population is *checks notes* nearly 82% White and less than 8% black … uh, WTF?!?

 

[Don Wassall]

Don, obviously this makes complete sense.

the state university’s football roster is just reflecting the state’s demographics since Kentucky’s population is *checks notes* nearly 82% White and less than 8% black … uh, WTF?!?

It's almost as bad at Tennessee, which is 77% White and 16% black. My three favorite Southern teams back in the '90s used to be Kentucky, Tennessee, and your old stomping grounds in Arkansas, which is 75% White and 15% black, because they used to play a fair amount of Whites including at WR and on defense. Their teams were never close to being as White as their percentage of the state population, but double digit White starters or fairly close to it was common. Matt Jones, the best running quarterback ever, is still one of my all-time favorite college players and Arkansas had other players to root for when Jones played and that was only 20 years ago.

I also used to watch LSU a lot as they always seemed to have a good White receiver or two going back to the days of Todd Kinchen and others.