It has not been long since Terry “Touchdown” Wilson stepped on campus and officially became a member of UK football’s team, but he already loves his new home.

In fact, he even loved it long before he was listed on the official roster.

“As soon as I touched down here, I just fell in love with it,” Wilson said. “Seeing that opportunity that I have to come in here and do big things is important to me.”

Wilson indeed does have a golden opportunity, as the Cats are in need of a new starting quarterback next season, and Wilson is a favorite to take over that role.

All the hype surrounding Wilson as being the next star quarterback for UK has earned the sophomore a lot of attention in his early days in Lexington. The hype surrounding Wilson is nothing like he’s seen before, but he’s learned to handle it well.

“I feel like just keeping my head strong and keeping my vision tight, tunnel vision,” Wilson said. “Just keeping that focus on what I need to do, what the goal is for me and for this team, for the guys out there so we can get the job done.”

Ultimately, the goal for Wilson and his teammates is to turn the football program around and be competitive in the SEC. Before he can do that, however, he must establish among a team that’s been together for a couple of years already.

“You got to be a guy that you can trust, you can’t be coming in and making wrong decisions,” Wilson said. “I just had to come in and get close with the guys, play basketball if we need to, go see a movie.”

Another way Wilson has been spending time with his teammates is throwing passes to the receivers he’ll be throwing the ball to next season. Spring practices have not officially started yet, but Wilson and some of the receivers have already had the chance to get out at Kroger Field and practice some routes.

“It’s learning those small things about them and everything, on my end I feel like that’s an important thing for me to learn,” Wilson said. “I’m big on that, getting that comradery with the team is like the biggest thing on my end.”

However, UK’s playbook isn’t as simple as just learning the routes of the receivers and throwing them the ball. Wilson has to learn all the designs and formations of the offense before he can be trusted as the starting quarterback for the Cats.

Luckily for Wilson, he is a junior college transfer and learning playbooks is something he is already familiar with. This will be his third playbook he’s had to learn as a collegiate athlete, and it is already going smoothly a month in.

“How we do that is just go through sections, go through installs and you do that every other day or whatever,” Wilson said. “They gave me the film login so I can watch that at home if I need to.”

It won’t be long until Wilson gets a chance to show off what he’s learned to fans at Kroger Field. UK’s annual Blue-White spring game is scheduled for April 13, and the regular season will open up at home against Central Michigan on Sept. 1.

Wilson said he’s looking forward to getting the win for his new team, but he’s also looking forward to getting back on the field as a division one college football player.

“That’s really the biggest thing for me, getting those jitters off, that’s really all I can say about that,” Wilson said.