Patrick Towles to transfer from UK
LEXINGTON, Ky. – If Kentucky features another quarterback competition in 2016, junior Patrick Towles will not be involved after he announced his intention to transfer Sunday via Instagram.
“I would like to thank the University of Kentucky for giving me the opportunity to achieve my childhood dream of playing quarterback for the Wildcats,” Towles wrote in the post. “The last four years have been ones that I will truly cherish for the rest of my life. Although I wish my time here in Lexington could have ended another way, I'm eternally grateful. I've decided to transfer to play my fifth year at another university.
“Thank you to Coach Stoops, Coach Dawson, Mitch Barnhart, my teammates, the Big Blue Nation and the entire Kentucky Athletics Department for allowing me to achieve my lifelong dream. I will truly bleed blue till the day I die.”
With Towles on track to graduate in December, he could likely play immediately at another FBS program as a graduate transfer.
Towles finishes his Kentucky career with 5,099 passing yards, sixth most in program history. His 5,452 yards of total offense also rank sixth in program history. He threw 24 touchdowns and 24 interceptions and added 11 rushing touchdowns in his career.
Pressure on UK offense after disappointing season
Towles, the grandson of Major League Baseball Hall of Famer and former U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, arrived at Kentucky as a four-star recruit in Joker Phillips’ 2012 recruiting class. After losing the starting quarterback competition during his first preseason camp, Towles looked destined for a redshirt season in 2012 but was forced into action due to injuries in the sixth game of the season.
His UK career started on a high note as he completed 5 of 5 pass attempts for 71 yards and a touchdown on his first drive against Mississippi State, but he was injured on the touchdown throw and struggled upon returning to the field later in the season. He appeared in five games as a freshman, completing 19 of 40 passes for 233 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
During Mark Stoops’ first season on campus, Towles finished third in the quarterback competition behind Jalen Whitlow and Maxwell Smith but was able to complete the redshirt season he missed a year earlier. After an offseason of extra work with a personal quarterback coach, Towles revitalized his career in the spring of 2014 and won the starting quarterback job in preseason camp before the 2014 season.
As a redshirt sophomore, Towles started all 12 games for Kentucky, completing 225 of 393 passes for 2,718 yards, 14 touchdowns and nine interceptions. Towles struggled during much of the six-game losing streak that ended the 2014 season, but he also offered several highlights, including a 390-yard, two-touchdown game against No. 1 Mississippi State.
Towles held off redshirt freshman Drew Barker for the starting job prior to the 2015 season, and started each of Kentucky’s first 10 games before being benched following a disappointing loss at Vanderbilt. He finished his redshirt junior season with 2,148 passing yards but completed just 56.1 percent of his passes and threw 14 interceptions to go with nine touchdowns. The last pass of his Kentucky career was an interception on the Louisville 2-yard line in the fourth quarter of Kentucky’s 38-24 season-ending loss.
With Towles leaving the program, Kentucky is left with two scholarship quarterbacks on the roster: redshirt freshman Drew Barker and sophomore Reese Phillips.
Barker started each of Kentucky’s final two games this season and completed 35 of 70 passes for 364 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions in five games. Phillips appeared only as Kentucky’s holder on field goal and extra points in 2015 after missing spring practice with an Achilles’ tendon injury. He appeared in three games as Towles’ backup in 2014.
Three-star quarterback recruit Gunnar Hoak is expected to enroll at Kentucky for the spring semester.
Towles' departure may leave Kentucky with fewer options at quarterback for the 2016 season, but UK head coach Mark Stoops issued a statement of support for the decision through a UK spokesman.
"I thank Patrick for everything he’s done for our team,” Stoops said. “I understand his decision and support him. He truly gave everything he had, and I wish him nothing but the best.”
Email Jon Hale atjahale@courier-journal.com. Follow him on Twitter@JonHale_CJ.