5 Kentucky players to watch in Citrus Bowl

ORLANDO, Fla. — For the first time in almost a month, it’s a game week for Iowa football team.

It doesn’t have nearly as much at stake as the Hawkeyes’ last game — the Big Ten Championship Game. But the Citrus Bowl will present some intriguing matchups on Saturday.

Here are five Kentucky players to watch:

RB Chris Rodriguez Jr.

Iowa fans will likely be hearing Rodriguez Jr.’s name a lot in Saturday’s Citrus Bowl.

Kentucky has been a run-first team under head coach Mark Stoops, and Rodriguez spearheads the Wildcats’ ground attack.

The junior from McDonough, Ga., has accumulated 1,278 rushing yards while averaging 6.2 yards per carry.

That efficiency isn’t anything new to Rodriguez. He also averaged more than 6 yards per attempt in each of his previous seasons in Lexington, Ky.

The Wildcats are 7-0 when Rodriguez rushes for at least 110 yards in 2021. When he doesn’t reach that mark, they are 2-3.

The bad news for Iowa? Rodriguez has hit that 110-yard mark in Kentucky’s last three games. The good news? That came against Vanderbilt, New Mexico State and Louisville — three defenses that are far from Iowa’s caliber.

His biggest performance came on Sept. 11, when his 207 rushing yards — with 7.7 yards per carry — and two touchdowns helped the Wildcats edge Missouri, 35-28. Yes, that’s the same Missouri that had COVID-19 issues and kept the Hawkeyes from playing in a bowl game last year.

Holding onto the ball has been a challenge for Rodriguez, though. The 5-foot-11 back has coughed up the ball six times, including twice in that otherwise-outstanding game against Missouri.

QB Will Levis

Iowa was not familiar with Kentucky before preparing for the Citrus Bowl. It was familiar with Levis, though.

Levis, who transferred from Penn State to Kentucky, is one of the few Kentucky athletes to play a snap against the Hawkeyes.

The 6-foot-3 quarterback completed 13-of-16 passes in Penn State’s 41-21 loss to Iowa in 2020 after replacing starter Sean Clifford.

Now with full reins of a team’s aerial attack, Levis nicely complements Kentucky’s high-volume rushing game as an effective passer.

Levis has 2,593 passing yards, 23 touchdowns and 12 interceptions this season.

No other Kentucky quarterback has surpassed 2,000 yards in a season since 2017, and Levis already has more yards than the Wildcats’ leading passers in 2019 and 2020 combined. He’ll surely add to those numbers in the Citrus Bowl.

He has the ability to pick up yardage on his feet, too. When excluding the yardage lost from his 16 sacks, the Madison, Conn., native averages 5.3 yards per carry. Counting the sacks, it’s still a respectable 4.2 yards per carry.

DE Josh Paschal

Josh Paschal is no Aidan Hutchinson, but Kentucky’s top defensive lineman still has made life difficult at times for opposing offenses.

His five sacks in 2021 are second on the team, and he has 52 total tackles — good enough for fifth on the team and first on the defensive line.

DraftCountdown.com’s staff ranked him on Dec. 14 as the 51st and the 79th-best prospect in the 2022 draft class.

Pro Football Focus gave Paschal the highest grade out of any Kentucky defensive player in the Wildcats’ last game of the regular season — a definitive 52-21 win over in-state rival Louisville.

WR Wan’dale Robinson

Robinson has some things in common with the quarterback darting passes to him.

Just like Levis, Robinson started his collegiate career outside of Lexington. His previous home also was in the Big Ten, and both of them played against Iowa in their careers.

Robinson, a Nebraska transfer, leads Kentucky in his first season on the team with 94 receptions and 1,164 receiving yards.

No other Kentucky receiver has more than 41 catches.

Robinson’s dominance in Lexington is probably not much of a surprise for Iowa fans, though.

He caught nine passes for 75 yards and had six rushes for 42 yards in the 2020 battle between border rivals Iowa and Nebraska.

Ferentz isn’t exactly excited for having to face Robinson and Levis again.

“Really I wish they were still at Penn State and Nebraska, quite frankly, because they're both good players,” Ferentz said.

LB J.J. Weaver

Weaver certainly has some unique attributes in the linebacker room in Lexington. He’s the one with 11 fingers. No, you did not misread that.

Weaver has a sixth finger on his right hand, per his online Kentucky bio and several media reports.

Weaver used to have to put two fingers in one finger hole to wear football gloves, per Jon Hale of the Louisville Courier-Journal, but now he has a specially-made, six-finger glove for his right hand.

Number of fingers aside, no Kentucky player has stopped opposing offenses behind the line of scrimmage than Weaver.

Weaver has a team-high 6.5 sacks and 10.5 tackles for loss.

His 2021 success comes despite tearing his ACL in 2020, according to the Courier-Journal.

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