CJ Baxter’s arrival at Kentucky came with more baggage than most high-profile transfers. The former No. 1-ranked running back in the high school class of 2023 had already flashed big-time production at Texas, where he earned Big 12 Freshman of the Year honors after piling up 659 rushing yards and five touchdowns. But by the time he got to Lexington in January, the conversation around him had changed.
The talent was never the issue. The question was whether the body would cooperate.
Baxter had been banged up through much of his last two seasons at Texas. He played in just eight games last year and ran for 196 yards, and he also missed the entire 2024 season after tearing three ligaments in his knee. That injury history made Kentucky’s interest a calculated gamble, even for a staff that believed strongly in his upside.
“I felt like he had a veteran presence, he has really high football IQ and if we could get him into form and into shape he could have a breakout year for us,” UK coach Will Stein said.
The Wildcats were aggressive from the start. They made Baxter a priority in the transfer portal, convinced him to make his first portal visit to Lexington, and even after he took a trip to Colorado and Oklahoma transfer Jovantae Barnes committed to UK, Stein and his staff kept room open for Baxter in the budget.
Now six games into the season, that bet looks enormous.
Baxter is tied for second in the SEC with eight rushing touchdowns and ranks fifth in the league in rushing yards per game at 80.7. What Kentucky got was exactly what it hoped for: a player with a résumé that still carried weight, and enough burst to turn a running game around when healthy.
“CJ was one of the top running backs coming out of high school, performed well in SEC,” running backs coach Kolby Smith said before the season. “When you got an opportunity to get great talent like that, you go and get it.”
Kentucky’s staff had reasons to be careful. Baxter was kept out of contact work for most of spring and preseason camp, and the same caution applied to Barnes.
Only when Baxter was finally allowed to be tackled in the second preseason scrimmage did the staff get a real look at where he stood physically. Stein entered the season feeling only “OK” about the depth at running back, and the injury history of both players was a big part of that.
Even in the opener against Youngstown State, Kentucky eased Baxter in. He carried the ball nine times and scored twice, giving the staff a glimpse of what he could become without overloading him. After that game, when the team’s leadership council gathered and the discussion turned toward what still needed fixing, Baxter pushed back on the gloomy tone.
“I was like, me getting in the end zone twice, I feel like it was a lot of weight off my shoulders,” Baxter said. “I was super thankful for it, grateful, so that’s what I talked about.”
His role kept expanding from there. Backup Jason Patterson led Kentucky in rushing yards after the first month, but Baxter kept climbing into the center of the offense. He had 19 carries for 81 yards and two scores in the win at Texas A&M, then broke the 100-yard mark for the first time since November 2023 the following week with 149 yards and a touchdown against South Alabama.
Last Saturday against LSU, Baxter made the kind of opening statement every running back dreams about. He ripped off a 77-yard run on Kentucky’s first offensive snap, and while a defender tracked him down from behind - a moment that naturally raised more questions about his post-injury speed - Baxter answered immediately by scoring on the next play.
He wasn’t done. Baxter later added Kentucky’s overtime touchdown, setting up the game-winning two-point conversion. He finished with 123 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries.
“Just coming here and having that reset and stuff like that, man, I’m super thankful for it,” Baxter said. “I told (the coaches) after the game … ‘Thank y’all.’
That’s literally what I said. Thank y’all.
Thank y’all for giving me a second chance.”
That second chance has clearly meant something to him. Baxter said faith has helped him handle the twists in his career, and against LSU he wore a Bible verse on his eye black: ‘You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
He said he couldn’t make sense of why injuries kept knocking him off track when they did. But with Kentucky off to a historic start under Stein, Baxter sees more clearly now what all of it has led to.
“Everything I’ve been through, I went through it for a reason,” he said. “It’s made me into the person, the player (I am).
To my girlfriend out there, the boyfriend I am to her. To my mom, the child I am.
To my siblings, everything. It just made me a better person.”
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