CJ Baxter is no stranger to the spotlight. During his time in the Florida prep circuit, he was the No. 1 running back in America. Upon arriving at Texas, he was sensational in the sport’s greatest pressure-cooker. Unfortunately, injuries never allowed him to build on that early success in Austin. Now, he has a chance to write a redemption story at Kentucky.

Baxter burst onto the scene in 2023, rushing for 659 yards and five touchdowns to earn Big 12 All-Freshman honors. At 6-foot-1, 230 pounds, players of that size aren’t supposed to be that explosive. That explosiveness got taken away ahead of his highly-anticipated sophomore campaign when he suffered a knee injury during fall camp.

Upon returning from his knee injury, he dealt with a bad hamstring throughout 2025. It has left many to wonder if he can still be one of the top running backs in the country.

Naturally, he’s been asked about his injuries quite a bit. Instead of lingering on the negative side effects, Baxter actually believes it’s a positive.

“I genuinely like when people ask me the question about my knee. I think that my knee injury, I’m not happy that it happened to me, but I’m happy what it did for me, and I say that because it made me sharper mentally,” Baxter said after a Kentucky spring practice.

“I don’t know if you guys know about the book of Job in the Bible, but Job was a guy who had everything, and he had all this stuff taken away from him. He had all the riches, the family, everything. You name it, he had it, and it was ultimately to test his faith. Well, he still fell back on his faith. And I genuinely believe when I went through that knee injury, I was Job. God did that for a reason.”

Baxter was tested in a way that he had never been tested before. Now that he’s on the other side of it, he has a newfound sense of confidence.

“That’s why I genuinely don’t believe that there’s nothing I can’t go through that I can’t overcome now,” said Baxter.

Baxter is in Prove-It Mode

Recovering from a severe injury is twofold. It’s clear he’s overcome the mental hurdle. How about the physical one?

Baxter is participating in Kentucky spring practice, just not in the full-contact portions. Will Stein knows what kind of player Baxter can be. Kentucky doesn’t need him to suffer a freak injury while pads are popping. As for how his knee feels, Kentucky brought new technology to the table to assess his situation.

“They’ve done a phenomenal job with helping me learn new things about my body. They’re very science-based, and the tests that I’ve done in these first four months here, I didn’t really get the experience Austin, so it’s been amazing,” he said.

What exactly are those? He’s not even entirely sure. “They’ve taught me some deficiencies I’ve had. Some really… I don’t even know all this stuff, because it’s so (sophisticated). I play football, so I don’t really know all the numbers and stuff.”

Baxter believes he has the right tools to succeed at Kentucky and is ready to show the world that he can be one of the nation’s top running backs.

“I always try to find something to not only prove doubters and haters wrong, but just to prove myself right, that I’m still who I say I am. I still believe that I was blessed to be the number one running back coming out the country for a reason. I was blessed to have a freshman campaign that I had for a reason, to be a top-name running back in college football, for a reason. So I’m just excited to go out there this fall and prove it again,” said Baxter.

Do yourself a favor and watch the entire conversation with CJ Baxter. It’s one of the most impressive interviews I’ve been a part of in almost 15 years on the Kentucky football beat.

CJ Baxter is not unfamiliar with Kentucky. He was on the sideline when the Longhorns traveled to Lexington last fall. The running back admitted he was surprised by Big Blue Nation, but he was not surprised by the result.

“Culture wins games. I already said it, but I genuinely believe that culture wins games. When it’s the fourth quarter, and it’s a 14-14 game, I think that the culture wins the games. And I say that because we all gonna be tired. It all comes down to who’s going to have their teammates back, who’s going to make the big play when it needs to be made… ultimately, if you care about the person next to you, then you’ll do whatever to make that play with them.”

That scenario played out at Kroger Field last fall. Kentucky outplayed Texas for most of the game. A late Ryan Niblett punt return set up a go-ahead field goal in the final two minutes. Kentucky recovered to force overtime, but the Cats were stuffed on three straight plays at the goal line, resulting in a 16-13 Texas win that changed the trajectory of the Kentucky football program.

“I think culture won that game too,” said Baxter. “I say that because, me being around the guys here now that was on the team from last year, they all say, like the culture here is already better. You can feel it, just people caring about each other, getting to know one another, the coaches, they’re really installing stuff into us to be great and win those games.”