Coleton Price doesn’t need a speech to get himself locked in. Every day in a team meeting, Kentucky’s center opens his notebook and writes the same message at the top of the page: “Why settle?”
For Price, it’s more than a slogan. It’s the line that keeps him pushing through his final college season, and it carries the memory of his younger brother, Colby, who died at 16 after a car wreck on his way to work.
“The last thing he texted me was like, ‘Why settle?’” Price said.
“... It pushes me every single day to not settle for what you got.
Just keep on going.
“That’s one of the biggest things, man. And I love him for it for sure.”
Price was back home in Bowie, Texas, during the holiday break after his freshman season at Baylor when he got the call. He drove to the scene with his father and learned Colby had been killed on impact.
The loss hit hard because the two were so close.
“Me and him were really close,” Price said. “One of my best friends, so that’s one of the things that is really, really hard on me, whenever I’m thinking of it. But every single time I wear 72, for sure I think of him and the legacy that we had.”
That number means something in the Price family. Coleton’s grandfather and father both wore 72.
He chose it at Bowie High School, then gave it to Colby after graduation. After Colby’s death, Bowie retired the jersey.
Price had to wear 57 as a freshman at Baylor because a senior lineman already had 72, but once he got the number back after Colby died, he wore it for his final three seasons there. He’ll wear 72 again at Kentucky this fall.
Kentucky brought Price in to be a major piece of Will Stein’s rebuild, and the offensive line was the first place Stein attacked. The Wildcats signed three of the top eight available transfer linemen, according to 247Sports, and Price came in as the portal’s top-ranked interior lineman.
He brings three seasons of starting experience in the Big 12 and should be a stabilizing force for first-time starting quarterback Kenny Minchey on an offense that returns only one starter. Price also hopes Stein’s pro-style system will help him show NFL scouts he belongs in next spring’s draft.
Teammates already seem convinced.
“He’s a dog,” former Baylor quarterback Sawyer Robertson said of Price. “One of the toughest guys I’ve ever known.
Banged his ankle up, has had broken fingers. I really feel like he would give his life to protect me.
That’s what you want in the center.”
That reputation followed him to Lexington, where he has quickly become one of the more respected voices in the room. With his close-cropped hair and neatly trimmed goatee and mustache, Price can look like he belongs more with the coaches than the players.
“He’s like the uncle,” running back CJ Baxter said with a laugh. “...
The way he carries himself. He very mature.
Look at him.”
Part of that maturity comes from life beyond football. Price will celebrate his first wedding anniversary this fall after marrying the former Hailey Skinner during a Baylor bye week last October. He said being married gives him a different kind of escape from the grind, especially with Hailey and their two toy Cavapoo dogs.
“I would say it’s a little bit different than a girlfriend, for sure,” Price said. “I mean, I do everything with her.”
He didn’t need much convincing to join Kentucky’s rebuild. Price was among the transfer targets who visited Lexington the first weekend the portal opened, and he signed without taking any other visits. Once he was in, the dominoes started to fall around him, helping Kentucky land Minchey and a group of highly regarded skill players.
“I think somebody like Coleton Price has been able to lead this unit since he’s got here,” Leftwich said. “It didn’t take until the summer. You hear his voice.”
That voice is going to matter when Kentucky runs into the inevitable rough patches this fall.
Price has already lived through enough to understand that nothing gets handed out. He and Colby once dreamed of playing together or against each other in college and then chasing NFL careers. Now that dream belongs to Coleton alone, and he’s intent on making his Kentucky season count.
“I’m not here on my last year just to go be OK and be average in the SEC,” Price said. “I want to go win something, I want to win the championship.
I want to win the Joe Moore Award. I want to do everything that we can do in our offense and our team.
I think we can do that.”
In Other News...
Kentuckys Push For Mark Mitchell Now Rests On One Eligibility Fight
Mark Mitchells path to a fifth college basketball season has turned into one of those off-court fights that can reshape a roster before anyone ever reaches the floor. The former Missouri forward has a temporary restraining order in Kentucky that keeps him eligible for now, giving him a legal foothold as Kentucky continues to push for help in adding him to the mix. What makes the case so complicated is that the SECs transfer rules still matter here, and they were built to limit intraleague moves to specific NCAA windows.
Greg Sankey has said those rules remain in effect unless changed or waived, and the conference, along with others, opposed Mitchells lawsuit seeking extra eligibility. The NCAAs new five-for-five model begins in 2026-27, but it did not grandfather in players from the high school class of 2022, which leaves Mitchell and others in a gray area as eligibility and transfer rights keep colliding. For Kentucky, the question is no longer just whether Mitchell can play, but whether the legal path stays open long enough to matter. [Read more 🡒]
Kentucky Just Stayed Alive In A Massive 2027 Recruiting Battle
Kentucky remains squarely in the mix for one of the class of 2027s premier guards, as five-star point guard Reese Alston has included the Wildcats among his top seven college choices. Ranked No. 9 nationally, Alston has drawn heavy attention early in his recruitment, and Kentucky has kept itself involved since extending an offer in October 2025.
Mikhail McLean has been a steady presence in the pursuit, helping Kentucky stay relevant as the race begins to take shape. Louisville currently has the early momentum, but the process is still wide open, with several programs working to separate themselves in what figures to be a long battle for one of the top point guards in the country. [Read more 🡒]
Kentucky Is Tracking A Rare 7-Foot-2 Prospect Fans Need To Watch
Kentuckys recruiting radar has already started to pick up on a name that fits the modern big-man mold in a very unusual way. Cherif Millogo, a 7-foot-2 center at St. Francis High School in California, has emerged as a top prospect in the 2027 class, and his path to the sport makes him even more intriguing. Originally from Burkina Faso, Millogo did not come to basketball through the usual youth pipeline. He moved from soccer to hoops around age 13 and has grown into a versatile player with a strong shooting touch.
His rise has drawn attention from several major college programs, with Kentucky among the schools keeping tabs as the evaluation process begins to sharpen. Millogo is also being managed by former NBA player Luc Mbah a Moute, who helped arrange his enrollment at St. Francis, adding another layer of experience around a prospect already standing out for his size and skill. For Wildcats fans, he is the kind of long-term name worth filing away now, because players with this mix of frame, background and upside tend to become much harder to ignore once the offers start stacking up. [Read more 🡒]