Terry Wilson Enters the Transfer Portal
After three great years that started to trend downhill towards the end, the Terry Wilson era in Lexington is now over. Monday evening Terry took to his Instagram to announce that he will enter the transfer portal and take his talents to a new home.
"Thank you, Kentucky. It's been a good ride." I can confirm it has been. Let's look back on what he's done during his time in Lexington.
Year 1: Terry Wilson leads his team to a 10-win season during his first season as Kentucky's QB1, with the help of Benny Snell, Josh Allen and Lynn Bowden. Kentucky reaches their first 10-win season in nearly four decades, and reaches their third straight bowl game. After going 0-2 in bowl games under Stoops, Terry helps the Cats find their first bowl win. Kentucky defeats the Penn State Nittany Lions in the 2019 Citrus Bowl, 27-24. Not to forget along the way that, in just his second game of his Kentucky career, he won AT The Swamp, snapping a 31-year losing streak in Gainesville. That sole win absolutely transformed the football program from there on out. The national media started taking second looks at the University of Kentucky, and top their players finally wanted to start coming here. Kentucky went on to demolish in-state rival Louisville by 46 at home as well. Terry Wilson holds one of the best season records of all-time.
Season Stats: 13 games (10-3 record), 180/268 completions, 67.2% accuracy, 1,889 passing yards, 11 touchdowns and 8 interceptions, on a QB rate of 133.9.
Year 2: Terry's second season in Lexington got cut way too short, as he was injured in the second game of the season versus Eastern Michigan from a horse collar tackle that sidelined him for the rest of the season.
(via Courrier Journal)
Season Stats: 2 games (2-0 record), 33/52 completions, 63.5% accuracy, 360 passing yards, 2 touchdowns and zero interceptions, on a QB rating of 120.9.
Shortly before year three in Lexington, Terry became a father.
Year 3: Last season was very difficult to judge because this clearly wasn't your normal season. No fans, players out due to covid tracking/injuries etc.. And Terry Wilson was also still battling his knee injury from the season before. While giving him some slack for the odd things put in place for the season to work successfully, every team had to deal with the same things, so you can decide how hard of a judge you'd like to be on this season.
One thing that impacted this seasons results that other teams didn't have to worry about, were some of the off the field issues, such as John Schlarman passing away and teammate Chris Oats suffering from a medical injury, the team had a lot of weight on their shoulders while managing through the craziest year of their lives. Tough piece to bite, but this team kept moving it along.
Kentucky was faced with an all-SEC schedule, where they faced the 'big dogs' of the league such as Alabama, Georgia and Florida, in four consecutive weeks. They didn't win either of those, but they did have great halves in each of those matchups. One game they did win was AT Tennessee in just their fourth game of the season, snapping a 34 year losing streak in Knoxville. The Cats went on to finish 4-6 on the season, winning their fifth straight bowl game (third consecutive win), defeating the NC State Wolfpack, 23-21.
Season Stats: 10 games (4-6) record, 123/197 completions, 62.4% accuracy, 1,191 passing yards, 7 touchdowns and 4 interceptions, on a QB rating of 129.0.
When you mention the name Terry Wilson, you'll have one of two different reactions to it. You'll either be on the side where many people love him as he has brought us program-changing and first-in-our-lifetime kind of wins, or the side where some seem to venture to that didn't enjoy him being here. While Terry took this program to heights it has never been to before, it doesn't mean he didn't have his flaws. He threw his fair share of interceptions, he wasn't good at throwing the long ball, and during his final year put up little to nothing in offensive yards. He averaged only 119.1 passing yards this past season, that weren't enough for some fans.
I've said this for a while, and I'll continue saying it. Terry Wilson will go down as the most under-appreciated quarterback to ever play for the University of Kentucky. He'll have some nice records and checkmarks in the programs history books, but he'll never get the credit he truly deserves. He was always compared to the backup quarterback whenever he was struggling, and never praised (by those same people) when he was doing big things.
I personally enjoyed Terry's time here, and truly want the best for him wherever he ends up. Thank you for a great three years, Terry.