Kentucky Football: What Xavier Peters transfer means for Wildcats

Kentucky football received good news when Florida State defensive end Xavier Peters transferred to join the team. What does this mean moving forward?

Kentucky is coming off of a surprisingly successful campaign in 2018. Moving forward, they will have to replace a lot of talent. One of the biggest names they will have to replace is Josh Allen, an outside linebacker that led the team with 17 sacks last year. You don’t just replace that type of production with one player. It will take improvement across the entire defensive line to solve this problem. Now that Allen is in the NFL, there will be a ton of talent void at the edge.

In comes Xavier Peters, a transfer from Florida State. Peters is listed as a defensive end, but he has the body type to play that linebacker position that Allen played. Now, I’m not saying that Peters is Josh Allen 2.0 or anything. He redshirted his freshman year at Florida State. However, he has the size and quickness to potentially make that position change for Kentucky.

If the coaching staff decides to keep him at defensive end, he can still have an impact. Kentucky was high on his recruiting board coming out of high school, and he even committed to them before choosing to go to Florida State. They had a plan to use him, and now they will finally get to have that play come to fruition.

However, it will take some time for Peters to see the field. Unless he is granted a waiver, he will have to sit out his redshirt freshman season. If the team was considering a position change to outside linebacker, it would be very valuable to have an entire season to prepare and change your body to fit the build.

What does this mean for Kentucky in terms of the next three years? I think Peters will become a key starter for them. He will have a year to sit and learn, and then he will be a potential starter wherever they want to place him in the front seven. He will never be the type of player Josh Allen was, but he can be a key piece on a quality SEC defensive line if they are able to recruit around him over the next couple of recruiting cycles.

It will be disappointing if Xavier Peters can’t play in 2019, but hopes should be high for him once he’s able to step on the field in the blue and white.