Notre Dame transfer quarterback Kenny Minchey is stepping into the spotlight at Kentucky, and the price tag attached to that move is reportedly steep.
On3’s Pete Nakos recently put together a list of the nation’s highest-paid quarterbacks, with former Kentucky target Sam Leavitt landing at No. 4 thanks to a reported $4.5 million deal with the LSU Tigers. Minchey didn’t crack the top 10, but his name still surfaced in Nakos’ breakdown of quarterbacks making major money.
“The $2 million club is a long list among college football quarterbacks,” Nakos wrote. “Sources have told On3 that South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers, Kansas State’s Avery Johnson, Virginia Tech’s Ethan Grunkemeyer, NC State’s CJ Bailey, Louisville’s Lincoln Kienholz, Missouri’s Austin Simmons, Arizona’s Noah Fifita, Penn State’s Rocco Becht, and Kentucky’s Kenny Minchey all fall in this bucket.”
For Kentucky, that kind of spending fits the reality of hiring Will Stein in his first offseason without a regular-season game as a head coach on his résumé. Stein missed on his top quarterback target in Leavitt, then turned around and flipped Minchey away from the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
Stein and offensive coordinator Joe Sloan have built reputations for developing high-end quarterbacks, and that track record clearly mattered here. Minchey may not have been the first option, but he seems to have been right near the top of the list.
Still, the gamble is obvious. Minchey comes in with limited experience, and Kentucky has seen this story go both ways before - it worked out with Will Levis, and it went very badly with Brock Vandagriff.
There are real questions about how it all comes together, but Stein and Sloan are the kind of quarterback minds Kentucky is betting on. Minchey bought into that pitch, even after sitting behind a potential first round NFL draft pick in CJ Carr, who’s reportedly set to make about $3 million this season, for what it’s worth.
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