Last season, Drew Barker’s third in Lexington, looked to be his first chance to truly be a starting quarterback in the SEC. After winning the job, however, he would suffer a season-ending back injury in Week 3 that led to the emergence of Stephen Johnson.

The two signal callers are competing for the starting position in 2016, but the good news for Barker is that he is finally getting healthy. Now a redshirt junior, he played 10 plays in Saturday’s scrimmage and led the team to a touchdown during his drive.

When speaking about his now-veteran signal caller after that scrimmage, head coach Mark Stoops was pleasantly surprised by the progress.

“He looked a little more comfortable than I thought he might in a game-like situation,” Stoops said, via Kentucky.com. “I thought he looked good.”

Barker was a highly-touted recruit in 2014 but has failed to live up to the hype thus far. After entering UK as a four-star prospect and the sixth-rated pro-style quarterback by 247Sports Composite in 2014, he has provided little stability to the Wildcats’ quarterback situation. In his two eligible seasons following a redshirt in 2014, he has appeared in eight games, completed exactly half of his 106 attempts and thrown five touchdowns against seven interceptions.

It would be somewhat of a surprise if Johnson isn’t the starter for week 1, but stranger things have happened. Barker is very talented — probably more-so than Johnson, but Johnson could be best suited for the offense and team.

It’ll be interesting to see how this position evolves for the Wildcats this spring.