To say that the people of Owensboro were excited when local hero Gavin Wimsatt announced his transfer from Rutgers to Kentucky last spring would be a massive understatement.
“I’ve gotten so many texts,” said a smiling Wimsatt. “That’s probably the most texts I’ve ever gotten in one day. I couldn’t even tell you how many. Probably most of them (in Owensboro) are Kentucky fans.”
Of all the football players who will wear the blue and white shirts of the United Kingdom in 2024, none may have a more interesting recruitment story than Wimsatt.
A potent dual-threat quarterback in high school, Wimsatt led the Owensboro Red Devils to the semifinals of the Kentucky Class 5A playoffs as a sophomore in 2019 and to the 5A state finals as a sophomore.
In doing so, the 6-foot-3, 220-pound signal-caller became a nationally ranked recruit with scholarship offers from Michigan, Michigan State, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oregon, TCU and West Virginia, to name a few.
For Kentucky, top recruiter Vince Marrow led the Wildcats in their pursuit of Wimsatt. Historically, “The Big Dawg” doesn’t often miss a shot when he commits fully to a promising player from his own state.
But in an unexpected twist, the recruiter who formed the strongest bond with Wimsatt was then-Rutgers offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson. Ultimately, Wimsatt shocked the recruiting world by signing with a rebuilding Rutgers program that was in the midst of eight consecutive losing seasons.
To make Wimsatt’s recruitment even more exciting, Rutgers lured the Owensboro star into early college entry in in the middle of his high school graduation season with a NIL package, which was simultaneously reported to be a “six-figure” amount.
After playing the first three games for Owensboro in 2021, Wimsatt headed north to New Jersey to get an early start on his college career. He then appeared in four games for the Scarlet Knights this year, becoming the rare player to play both high school and college football in the same season.
“Gavin had the opportunity to go to college and start the next phase,” Owensboro head coach Jay Fallin said last week. “Obviously, we would have liked to have been able to coach him longer and spend more time with him. But we were happy that he had that opportunity and we fully supported him.”
In New Jersey, things didn’t go according to plan for Wimsatt.
Gleeson, Wimsatt’s sponsor, was fired in the middle of the 2022 season. However, Wimsatt stayed with Rutgers boss Greg Schiano and started every game at quarterback for Rutgers last season.
The good news was that Wimsatt led Rutgers (7-6) to its first winning season since 2014, including a 31-24 victory over the Miami Hurricanes in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium.
Unfortunately, the bad news was that Wimsatt completed just 47.8 percent of his passes last season and threw almost as many interceptions (eight) as touchdowns (nine). During his entire career at Rutgers, Wimsatt completed just 46.6 percent of his passes.
Kirk Ciarrocca, who replaced Gleeson as Rutgers’ offensive coordinator in 2023, came from Minnesota. Last offseason, former Golden Gophers quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis joined the former Golden Gophers OC at Rutgers.
Wimsatt, who competed with the Minnesota transfer for the starting quarterback spot at Rutgers during spring training, lost out on the decision. Schiano announced after the end of spring training that Kaliakmanis – with a career completion rate of 53.3 percent and not exactly an accurate passer himself – would be the Scarlet Knights’ starting QB in 2024.
Last month, Schiano said at Big Ten media days that part of the reason he named a starter at that time was because he was considering Wimsatt.
“I wanted Gavin to have the opportunity — I had no idea what he was going to do — but I wanted him to have the opportunity to go somewhere else if he wanted to,” Schiano said. “He believed in us early on when we didn’t have a lot of results to show him. Great family, great kid. But it just didn’t work out at Rutgers.”
After Wimsatt decided to enter his name in the transfer portal, the leading university in his home state immediately contacted him.
“I thought it was great,” says Wimsatt about the contact from UK. “I was all ears.”
Kentucky has hired a new offensive coordinator for the fourth consecutive year, former Boise State assistant Bush Hamdan. At quarterback, Brock Vandagriff, who came from Georgia, was also new to Lexington and is the expected starter for 2024 in Mark Stoops’ program.
Nevertheless, on his second recruitment attempt, Wimsatt was this time receptive to what the UK had to offer.
The 20-year-old Wimsatt has one season of college eligibility left after this season.
“I think I fit well into the offense that Coach Hamdan wants to play here,” says Wimsatt. “I think I can make my contribution.”
If Vandagriff is UK’s QB1 starting in 2024 as expected, it will be interesting to see if the Wildcats’ offensive brain trust can find a way to make Wimsatt a key part of Kentucky’s offense as well.
In two early UK practices open to the media, Wimsatt – who ran for 11 touchdowns for Rutgers last season – looked dynamic with the ball in his hands. He also completed two long passes to former Franklin County star Fred Farrier in the second open practice.
Could the redshirt junior QB become Kentucky’s multi-positional version of the NFL’s Taysom Hill or, going back a generation, Kordell Stewart?
“I think we’re going to use (Wimsatt) in a lot of those wildcat formation situations,” Hamdan said at UK Media Day. “… He’s a big, talented player. If you get a chance to watch him practice, you’ll see how dynamic he is. So it remains to be seen how that role evolves.”
As for the excitement in Owensboro over Wimsatt’s return to the Commonwealth, Fallin tells a story that shows how highly the quarterback is regarded in his hometown.
On Oct. 21 of last year, when Wimsatt ran for 143 yards and three touchdowns to lead Rutgers to a 31-14 victory over Indiana in Bloomington, Fallin said, “We went (to the game) and I’m not exaggerating when I tell you I saw dozens and dozens of people from Owensboro. I can tell you why they were in Bloomington – they weren’t to see IU. They were because of Gavin.”
“He’s an absolutely great kid. As polite, kind and conscientious as anyone you’ll ever meet. He’s just a joy to be around. That’s why people here are so excited that he’s now playing closer (to Owensboro) for the University of Kentucky.”
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