Better day of bowls on tap … So far, bowl season has felt a little bit like ‘do I have to!’ with so many top players opting out, but things actually pick up a bit on Friday with three games for which most of the players will actually show up. In fact, there is enough to talk about that we’ll preview each game separately. However, we’ll start with a pet peeve. We mentioned the other day that no bowl should ever have the word ‘tax’ in its title. Turns out there’s actually two of them as Friday’s Gator Bowl between Clemson and Kentucky is formally called the Taxslayer Gator Bowl. Whatever a taxslayer is! Fortunately, there’ll be some pretty good prospects on the field when the ACC Tigers play the SEC Wildcats. For example, while Clemson’s two best prospects for 2024 – CB Nate Wiggins and LB Jeremiah Trotter – have declared for the draft and won’t play, LB Barrett Carter (#0, 6-1, 230), RB Will Shipley (#1, 5-11, 210), DT Tyler Davis (#13, 6-2, 300), DE Xavier Thomas (#3, 6-2, 245) and C Will Putnam (#56, 6-3, 310) are expected to be in uniform. In fact, Carter has already indicated that he’ll be returning to school next fall, while the fact that fellow 3rd year junior Shipley is sticking with the team thru the bowl season has led to some speculation that he might also be leaning toward returning to school for the 2024 campaign. Meanwhile, the matchup with Clemson and its tough defence will be a chance for some redemption for Kentucky QB Devin Leary (#13, 6-1, 220) who transferred to the Wildcats this past off-season, but didn’t have the best of seasons as he completed just 56% of his throws, 10 of which he had picked. At least Leary won’t have to do it all alone as the Wildcats have an underrated back in Ray Davis (#1, 5-10, 220) who led the SEC in rushing this fall with almost 1,100 yards and 20 total TDs including 7 though the air. Also keep an eye on steady UK C Eli Cox (#75, 64, 310). For good measure, the Wildcats also feature several top prospects for 2025 including star DT Deone Walker (#1, 6-5, 350) a massive run stuffer with enough quickness to post a solid 5 sacks this year, along with CB Max Hairston (#31, 6-0, 185) who had 5 picks this fall) and WR/KR Barron Brown (#7, 6-1, 175) who had 2 KO return TDs this year.
