Kentucky All-American OT Darian Kinnard announces plans for 2021 season
A key piece of the Big Blue Wall is coming back to Lexington for the 2021 season.
Right tackle Darian Kinnard told reporters on Monday morning that he would come back to Kentucky for another season. Kinnard, who was a third-team Associated Press All-American, spoke with former UK pass rusher Josh Allen, who also came back for a senior season, before he made his decision. Kinnard said he received a second-third round grade from the league’s evaluations and he wants to come back and be a “lottery pick.”
“I know personally I have all the confidence in the world in my abilities and how I can play,” he said. “But sitting down and talking to Josh on the phone, it just made me really sit back and think, this whole last month was very stressful. Just trying to make this decision. But after talking to Josh, I understand where he came from and what he went through, this is probably the best decision for me and my family. I want to be able to go to the NFL like everybody else. I’m so close, but I know there’s some things I need to work on to make sure I can stay in the NFL for a long time. I’m just going to come back and work on myself and better my team.”
Kinnard said the recent season played during a pandemic, and the related NCAA eligibility waivers didn’t play a role in his decision.
“At the end of the day it’s football,” Kinnard said. “You go out there every Saturday night prepping for an opponent and you play to the best of your ability. That’s all you can do, it doesn’t matter if it’s a season where you’re playing all in-conference or playing a regular season. That’s the kind of outlook you need to have going into every year and every week, just prep for that opponent, play to the best of your ability and then move on to the next one.”
BOOM! All-American on the roster next year.
It’s good to have you back for another season Mr. Kinnard!
Hope that it makes a Josh Allen type of difference for him. This will be good for Jager Burton to have that experience to lean on.
This is the news I was wanting to hear the most.that few of the guys from the big blue wall would come back putting the offense in a lot better place to succeed next year.with so many coming back on deffense dont be shocked if cats defense dont get rumored to be one of best in sec.im really excited for next season.with new shot called and a chance for first time in long time we may have a true pocket passer with a great arm in beau allen. Things really look good