On Wednesday night when the first injury report for Kentucky football’s week nine matchup against Auburn came out, two key offensive names were listed as out.
Those two names were the running back duo of Demie Sumo-Karngbaye and DeaMonte “Chip” Trayanum.
Sumo-Karngbaye had been the lead back all season and will be missing his first game of the year. As for Trayanum, it’s been an injury-filled year for him as he made his debut in the Cats’ last game against Florida, but is back on the shelf.
This means that redshirt freshman Jamarion Wilcox is expected to be the lead back.
The South Paulding High School alumni joined the Cats as a four-star recruit and was ranked the No. 9 player nationally and the No. 8 overall player in Georgia.
Coming out of high school, Wilcox chose Kentucky over Auburn, Clemson and Ohio State.
On the year thus far, Wilcox has shown some promising strides as he‘s accumulated 224 yards on just 32 attempts.
He made his Wildcat debut in the season opener where he got just two carries, but rushed for 10 yards.
After not playing in game two against South Carolina, Wilcox took his nine carries for 43 yards against the Georgia Bulldogs.
Wilcox really jumped onto Big Blue Nation’s radar with a breakout performance against Ohio where he rushed for 82 yards on just eight carries. This caused many to wonder why he had not been getting more looks in a sluggish offense.
“Jamarion is a guy that you’ve heard me say many times that I believe in his talent, and he’s a very good player,” Head Coach Mark Stoops said following the Ohio win. “We are leaning on him to be consistent on and off the field. Do things right, be on time to meetings, the little things, know all the protection.”
With Wilcox now being on the radars of everyone, his snap counts began being called into question much more.
On the road against Ole Miss, he carried the ball seven times for 23 yards. Back at home against Vanderbilt, he got just three carries for 35 yards. In the road loss at Florida, he got just three carries, which he turned into 33 yards.
With Wilcox being one of the few consistently efficient players on the offense, the same questions about his usage before never seemed to die down. However, much like last time based on Stoops’ comments, it had nothing to do with his on-the-field play.
“Here’s a simple thing, tie your shoes. Tie your shoes,” Stoops said after the Vanderbilt loss. “He doesn’t tie his shoes, so he runs, but his shoe falls off, so he’s got to come out. That would help.”
The comments made by his head coach seemed to call his maturity into question — while also earning Stoops sour feelings from the fans — but with the injuries to the running back room, the head coach had no choice but to propel the promising Wilcox into a higher workload.
All eyes will be on the promising running back as he takes center stage when the Wildcats take on the Auburn Tigers on Saturday, Oct. 26, with kickoff scheduled for 7:45 ET. The game will air live on the SEC Network.
