Each week, it seems as though a new tight end is emerging as the favorite out of the room entering the 2022 campaign.
The hype surrounding Keaton Upshaw has been elevated as he returns from an injury that kept him out of the entire 2021 season. Izayah Cummings has fully embraced the switch over from wide receiver and will certainly play a role in Rich Scangarello's offense. Even freshman Josh Kattus has been credited with being a thorn in defender's sides throughout the fall.
This time, the love is being shown to redshirt freshman Jordan Dingle. After seeing action in four games last season, it sounds like he's ready to take over as the top dog, according to the big dog.
"He's really, to me, the most complete guy right now," tight ends coach Vince Marrow said of Dingle. "When I say he's ahead of those guys, it isn't big separation, but it's separation to the point where the other guys are good, but Dingle's really doing some good stuff."
The appeal of Dingle is...everything. If you aren't an "all-around guy", then you won't play tight end at UK, and the Bowling Green, Kentucky standout has drawn quite the description from Marrow:
"How I want to describe Jordan is that I say he's like a Swiss army knife, he can do it all, but he's also a guy that's actually physical. People talk about his catches, but he blocked very physical in the scrimmage, that's the part that gets me, he's an all-around guy."
Kentucky's second scrimmage of preseason camp last Saturday was what earned Dingle his initial praise from the mouth of head coach Mark Stoops:
“He had another good day today, he really did. He had a couple nice grabs out there. He’s just a good, complete tight end, you know. He’s got a good feel for it, he’s got a big catch radius, he makes competitive catches. So, he’s done a lot of good things."
Stoops' words were backed up by this video from Kentucky Football's Twitter, showing the redshirt freshman in action:
Since Dingle committed to the Wildcats in November 2020, Marrow and Co. have been fully aware of what was waiting in the wings while the veterans ate up the playing time:
"We could have played him last year, but we had some older guys," Marrow said. "He's a guy that can do it all. He's a very knowledgable kid but he's very talented and I think people are starting to see what everybody else was seeing."
We'll see how the depth chart shakes out once it's released next week, but it appears as though Dingle may be the man with the No. 1 next to his name when Sept. 3 rolls around, just a mere 11 days away. Marrow, Stoops and Scangarello have all raved over the skill that lies in the tight end room since the beginning of camp, and the hype train is only picking up steam.
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