Kentucky’s football program may not boast quite as many former All-Americans as most other programs in the SEC, but the Wildcats have laid claim to their fair share of star wideouts through the years.

There’s Randall Cobb, the do-everything standout who played both quarterback and receiver at UK, scoring 42 career touchdowns in four different ways during his three seasons as a Wildcat.

There’s Keenan Burton, who’s one of only 14 players in SEC history to amass at least 25 receiving touchdowns for a career, and Derek Abney, whose 197 career catches made him a fan favorite in the early 2000s.

But none of those players even come close to matching the legacy laid by former UK wideout Craig Yeast, indisputably the best in Kentucky’s football history.

Yeast played at UK from 1995-98, and he’s the school’s all-time leader in catches (208), yards (2,889) and receiving touchdowns (28). He ranks in the top 10 in SEC history in all three categories as well, and when his college days came to an end he was the conference’s all-time leader in catches and second in SEC history in yards.

We even ranked him as the No. 8 SEC wideout of all-time in our Wide Receivers Week countdown.

He’s since been passed on the all-time statistical leaderboards as more prolific SEC wideouts follow in his footsteps, but there’s something to be said for the man who achieved the feat first, doing so before teams started throwing as frequently as they do today.

His best years came in 1997-98, when he amassed 158 catches for 2,184 yards and 24 touchdowns in a span of just 22 games. He even recorded four career return touchdowns, including a kickoff return for a touchdown in three straight seasons from 1996-98.

However, Yeast did not ascend to greatness alone. His rise to the top of the SEC record books was aided tremendously by former Kentucky quarterback and No. 1 overall NFL Draft pick Tim Couch.

Couch quarterbacked Kentucky from 1996-98 but did the majority of his work in the 1997-98 seasons, when Yeast happened to blossom into stardom. The two formed one of the most dynamic tandems in the history of the conference, and both are entrenched not just among the great Kentucky athletes of all-time but among the great college football players of all-time as well.

Like Couch, Yeast went on to a short-lived career in the NFL. He was drafted in the fourth round of the 1999 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals, lasted three years in the NFL with the Bengals and New York Jets then played five more years in the Canadian Football League. His NFL career high for receptions in a season was 24 in 2000.

He now coaches Fremont Ross High School in Fremont, Ohio.

Although he can’t boast the kind of name recognition other great SEC wideouts enjoy, Yeast is just as accomplished as his supremely talented peers. And although most outside the Bluegrass will have a hard time remembering his career, and many more will forever bury his legacy under the umbrella of Couch’s greatness, Yeast’s numbers will forever speak for themselves.

Playing in an age in which running the ball was still the key to success on offense, Yeast torched defenses in a way few before him ever had.

So while Kentucky has had more productive wide receivers than many outside the Big Blue Nation realize, it’ll only ever have one Craig Yeast.