{"id":867887,"date":"2026-04-16T19:29:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T19:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/867887\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T19:29:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T19:29:18","slug":"kentucky-rules-out-15-players-for-spring-game-including-starting-left-tackle-lance-heard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/867887\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky rules out 15 players for spring game including starting left tackle Lance Heard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lance Heard<\/a> was arguably Kentucky\u2019s biggest addition in the transfer portal. The multi-time SEC transfer enters the 2026 season as one of the best returning left tackles in college football. UK is banking on the former five-star recruit from Louisiana to be one of the best players on Will Stein<\/a>\u2018s first football team in Lexington and to protect QB1 Kenny Minchey<\/a>\u2018s blindside. The true senior with one year of eligibility remaining needs to be healthy to do that.<\/p>\n

Ahead of Saturday\u2019s spring game, Stein discussed Kentucky\u2019s current availability situation. The first-year head coach led off with Heard. The big free agent addition is having a procedure done and will be out four weeks. That causes some shuffling on the offensive line.<\/p>\n

UTEP transfer Mark Robinson<\/a> has been used at left tackle and is someone that Big Blue Nation will see on Saturday afternoon at Kroger Field. Returnee Malachi Wood<\/a> is a swing tackle who could also be used at left tackle. Heard is an unquestioned starter for Kentucky in 2026 but the offense will be without him this weekend.<\/p>\n

LT1 is not the only player who will be on the sidelines in street clothes on Saturday. These are the 15 players whoo will be inactive for the spring game.<\/p>\n

Nic Anderson<\/p>\n

Jovantae Barnes<\/p>\n

CJ Baxter<\/p>\n

Xavier Daisy<\/p>\n

Alex DiMartino<\/p>\n

Ben Duncum<\/p>\n

Hardley Gilmore IV<\/p>\n

Sam Greene<\/p>\n

Lance Heard<\/p>\n

Cameron Miller Jr.<\/p>\n

Kyle Mixon<\/p>\n

Tovani Mizell<\/p>\n

Davis McCray<\/p>\n

Aba Selm<\/p>\n

Jaden Smith<\/p>\n

Kentucky will be down three running backs (Barnes, Baxter, Mizell), four wide receivers (Daisy, Gilmore, McCray), five offensive linemen (DiMartino, Heard, Miller, Mixon, Selm), and three defensive players (Duncum, Green, Smith). That is 15 players the Cats will be without for those scoring at home. Nic Anderson<\/a>, CJ Baxter<\/a>, Sam Greene<\/a>, and Lance Heard could all be considered projected starters. Jovantae Barnes<\/a>, Xavier Daisy<\/a>, Hardley Gilmore IV<\/a>, Aba Selm<\/a>, and Jaden Smith<\/a> were all in position to secure at least a rotational role this year entering spring camp.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats will be short-handed. Stein confirmed this is just temporary. He expects all of these players to be available when fall camp begins later this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lance Heard was arguably Kentucky\u2019s biggest addition in the transfer portal. The multi-time SEC transfer enters the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[62453,35110,111709,94369,111227,7,46485,117730,95277,97042,111715,97522,49,48,9392,50937,110562,111228],"class_list":{"0":"post-867887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-aba-selm-24-simon-kenton","9":"tag-ben-duncum-26-lake-travis","10":"tag-cameron-miller-26-morton-senior","11":"tag-cj-baxter-23-edgewater","12":"tag-davis-mccray-26-cornerstone-christian","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-hardley-gilmore-24-pahokee","15":"tag-jaden-smith-24-west-charlotte","16":"tag-jovantae-barnes-22-desert-pines","17":"tag-lance-heard-23-neville","18":"tag-malachi-wood-23-madison-central","19":"tag-mark-robinson-24-lyman","20":"tag-ncaa","21":"tag-ncaa-football","22":"tag-nic-anderson-22-katy","23":"tag-sam-greene-23-st-frances-academy","24":"tag-tovani-mizell-24-dematha-catholic","25":"tag-xavier-daisy-24-greater-atlanta-christian-school"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}