Making the case: Why Kaiya Sheron could be UK’s starting quarterback this year

We probably won’t officially know who UK’s starting quarterback for the first game of the 2021 season will be until the end of fall camp. Over the course of the past week, the Herald-Leader has been breaking down the cases for why each scholarship quarterback on the Wildcats’ roster could, or could not, be this year’s starter. Last up, Kaiya Sheron.

Background: Sheron enrolled in January and was one of the earliest commits in the Cats’ most recent signing class, which finished 34th overall in 247Sports’ rankings. Sheron was a consensus three-star prospect who chose the Wildcats over Arizona State and Cincinnati, and was considered a top-25 pro-style quarterback in the country. He graduated from Somerset High School, which he led to the Class 2A KHSAA state championship as a junior in 2019 after throwing a game-winning touchdown pass as time expired. As a senior last season he threw for 2,016 yards and 15 TDs, and scored 10 rushing TDs in just eight games played due to minor injuries.

Why Kaiya? He’s the only quarterback on Kentucky’s roster whose only collegiate experience has been with offensive coordinator Liam Coen at the helm, making him the freshest piece of clay for the first-year coach to mold. Listed at 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, he’s in the physical ballpark of where he ideally will probably need to be in order to hang in there against Southeastern Conference defenses. Plenty of true freshmen have had success in the league, including at UK, so Sheron wouldn’t shoulder the pressure of being a trailblazer. While he’s a Cincinnati native, Sheron’s family has deep roots in the state, and handing the reins to a kid who played in eastern Kentucky would garner a lot of goodwill from the fan base.

Why not? Kentucky has barely played true freshman quarterbacks in Mark Stoops’ nine years, and has never named one the starter. That trend alone does not bode well for Sheron, barring an unbelievable performance in a fall competition featuring two quarterbacks with three college seasons under their belts and another Kentuckian, Beau Allen, who was in Sheron’s shoes last fall. He was a sought-after quarterback, but he’s not an instant-impact prospect like, say, Jalen Hurts, who led Alabama to the College Football Playoff championship game in the 2016 season. Like most quarterbacks recruited to teams across the country, he’s a guy who will need to hit the playbook and weights hard in year one on campus in order to be a more formidable contender for the starting job in subsequent seasons.

Guest analysis

Jeff Drummond, CatsIllustrated/Rivals: I don’t think anyone expects to see the former Somerset star on the field this season. If that happens, it’s probably a bad sign for the Cats. But that’s not a knock on Sheron and his talent, just his youth and lack of experience. The staff really liked what he displayed at their summer camps and during his career with the Briar Jumpers.

Jon Hale, Courier-Journal: Coen praised the former Somerset star for his mentality during spring practice. The ability to stay calm is essential in being a great quarterback, but he probably needs a year or two of development before seriously pushing for the starting job.

Nick Roush, Kentucky Sports Radio: A pleasant surprise from the spring, I did not expect much from the Somerset star after an injury sidelined him throughout significant chunks of his senior season. It appears the early enrollee has the stuff to contend for the job in the future, just not this summer.

Derek Terry, The Cats Pause/247Sports: There’s no reason to expect Sheron will do anything more than redshirt and run the scout team this fall. However, there is talk that Coen was impressed with what he saw from Sheron this spring and he could be in the mix in the coming years.

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