How the Gator Bowl might have already shown impact of new UK football assistant coach

New Kentucky football wide receivers coach Daikiel Shorts was not on the sideline for the Gator Bowl, but the Wildcats’ newest assistant’s impact may already have been evident in Jacksonville.

“I feel a difference in that room already with these players,” UK coach Mark Stoops said the day before the matchup with Clemson when asked about Shorts. “I feel the concentration, the detail. The way they’re competing, they’re stepping up.”

Stoops’ assessment looked prophetic a day later when Barion Brown posted one of the best performances of his two-year UK career in the 38-35 loss to Clemson.

Brown finished the game with 226 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns. He scored on a 22-yard run, a 100-yard kickoff return and a 60-yard reception. Brown reached 100 receiving yards in a game for the fourth time in 26 games.

The performance was not perfect — Brown lost a fumble that contributed to UK’s fourth quarter meltdown — but it represented a strong finishing note for what had been a frustrating sophomore season for the Wildcats star.

“I thought he was locked in, he was dialed in,” offensive coordinator Liam Coen said. “... I was proud of him.”

The physical tools for Brown and fellow sophomore receiver Dane Key have been evident since they made their college debuts, but the jump many predicted the pair to make from year one to year two in the program failed to materialize.

Brown finished his sophomore season with seven fewer catches and 89 fewer receiving yards than his freshman year. With four catches for 83 yards and one touchdown in the Gator Bowl, Key did best his freshman numbers, but only slightly with five more catches and 117 more yards. Both players matched their receiving touchdowns total from their freshman seasons.

Consistency was an issue for Kentucky’s wide receivers in 2024. Dropped passes and sloppy routes contributed to a disappointing passing performance.

After the regular season, Stoops fired wide receivers coach Scott Woodward. Shortly before Shorts’ hire was confirmed, Coen made it clear he and Stoops were looking for a coach to bring structure and discipline to the room.

“Daikiel is going to be a great addition,” Stoops said before the Gator Bowl. “I think the big thing for me is just getting a great handle on that wide receiver room, building the depth that we need. He’s young. I think he’s very relatable to the players, but yet he has a great discipline about him.

“He’s a no-nonsense guy. It’s nice to find that balance when you have a young guy, not with a ton of experience.”

Woodward was always an awkward fit for the wide receivers coach job considering he played quarterback in college, serving as Coen’s backup at UMass, and had never coached the position before he was promoted from a quality control coach to wide receivers coach in 2021 after then wide receivers coach Jovon Bouknight was arrested on a DUI charge that was later dismissed.

Shorts played wide receiver in college, totaling more than 2,000 yards in his career at West Virginia before spending one season on the Buffalo Bills practice squad. He spent the last three seasons coaching the position at Houston.

“Coach Shorts, I can just tell me and him are going to have a good relationship, a great bond,” Brown said after the Gator Bowl. “I’m just ready to work.”

Brown and Key arrived at UK after the advent of the transfer portal and name, image and likeness endorsement deals for college athletes. Stoops has made no secret since early in their freshman season about the likelihood that traditional powerhouse programs would make attempts to lure Kentucky’s talented young playmakers into the transfer portal.

The efforts to keep the young receivers in Lexington probably contributed to the outsized expectations for their sophomore seasons, but the references to Shorts’ relatability and discipline make it clear UK coaches are also acknowledging there is work to be done for the receivers to reach their potential. Kentucky’s decision to build around Brown and Key led most of the Wildcats veteran receivers to transfer after the 2022 season, leaving little depth to push the starters this season.

Kentucky has already added transfers Ja’Mori Maclin (North Texas) and Raymond Cottrell (Texas A&M) to address depth concerns and could add more transfers at the position. With the transfer portal closed to undergraduates until after spring practice, Shorts now has several months to build the relationship with his new players without the threat of losing them to the portal immediately.

“I think there’s just a little bit of a sense of urgency that things are going to change, for good or for bad,” Coen said. “For one way or another, things are going to change a little bit. That’s a huge sense of urgency that’s necessary for us to all get on the same page with a new coach and a new receiver coming in as well to that room. I think those guys are excited, but you can definitely feel a little bit of a sense of urgency.”

Brown and Key will catch passes from a third starting quarterback in three years this spring with the addition of Georgia transfer Brock Vandagriff. The 2024 outlook for Kentucky will depend heavily on how Vandagriff (or another quarterback in the event of injury or struggles) performs in Coen’s offense, but he will need help from his receivers too.

The connection between Shorts, Brown and Key then will be critical as well.

“A lot of these kids hear the word discipline and think it’s a negative thing,” Shorts said at his introductory news conference. “Discipline is not a negative thing. You grow from discipline, you learn from discipline. It not only makes you a better person, but it also translates to the field and makes you a better player.

“Just earning those guys’ trust to where they can count on me but also when I need to crack down they know it’s coming from a good place and I’m not just getting on them for no reason.”

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