Wide receiver Jeff Badet was an instant impact freshman last season for the Kentucky Wildcats. Badet finished third on the team with 22 receptions and 285 receiving yards. But Badet has been slowed by a leg injury as the Wildcats prepare for the upcoming campaign. And the sophomore suffered a freak injury Tuesday.
Badet took a tennis ball to the eye while working to improve his hand-eye coordination, according to Kentucky.com’s Jennifer Smith.
The severity of the injury isn’t currently known, and the team isn’t sure exactly when Badet will be able to practice again.
“We’ll see how serious that is in the next...well really we won’t know for about a week on that,” Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops told Smith.
The sooner Badet can get back in the lineup, the better. The program emphasized an improvement in it’s passing game during camp. Badet’s absence will not help the team build chemistry between its quarterbacks and the wide receivers.
“Mark Stoops said the ‘dropback’ game looked better,” John Clay of Kentucky.com reported. “Offensive coordinator Neal Brown said the passing game still needs work and would get a lot of work over the next week.”
With Badet out of the lineup for the foreseeable future, it’s an opportunity for Kentucky’s talented freshman receivers -- Thaddeus Snodgrass (Springfield, Ohio/Springfield), Dorian Baker (Cleveland, Ohio/Cleveland Heights) and Blake Bone (Woodruff, S.C./Woodruff) -- to get more repetitions during practice and potentially produce during the season.