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Xavier Peters out at KY, if anyone can get his potential out it would be Marcus Freeman:


LEXINGTON – Less than a year after transferring to Kentucky from Florida State, former four-star recruit Xavier Peters is leaving Lexington.

Peters originally committed to Kentucky in July 2017 while at Lakota West High School, but he flipped his commitment to Florida State before signing day in 2018. He spent one season at Florida State, appearing in two games while redshirting, before transferring to Kentucky.

A UK spokeswoman confirmed Peters is transferring. According to a report from JUCO Football Ace, a Twitter account dedicated to covering junior-college football, Peters will transfer to Garden City Community College.

Since Peters said he was transferring to be closer to his young son in Cincinnati, the NCAA granted Peters a waiver to play at UK last season at in September. Peters played in three games after being declared eligible, recording one tackle.

Because of his prior recruiting hype, Peters's lack of consistent playing time was a frequent topic of conversation among fans.

After Peters was left off UK's travel roster for the October game at Georgia, coach Mark Stoops said the outside linebacker had work to do off the field before he could earn more snaps.

"It's our job to teach Xavier what our expectations are and how to handle your business here," Stoops said. "He has a hard time getting to things on time and doing things we ask him to do. So until he gets that straightened out he won't play."

On the eve of UK's coronavirus-shortened spring practice, Stoops again noted Peters had more work to do when asked about his status.

"I don’t want to get into specifics or try to throw him under the bus, but we have expectations here," Stoops said in March. "We’re going to do things a certain way, we’re going to do things right. That goes for him or anybody else. When you reach those expectations and play to our standard and do the things to our standard, as far as going to school and tutors and workouts and you can handle your business, then you’ll have an opportunity to do it on the field. Until then, there won’t be any.

"Again, I’m talking in general. You can read between the lines or however you want to do it. He’s doing some good things, he’s doing better."

Even after Peters' transfer Kentucky boasts impressive depth at the outside linebacker positions with projected starters Boogie Watson and Jordan Wright backed up by former four-star recruit and Moore High School star J.J. Weaver and fellow redshirt freshman K.D. McDaniel, both of whom received praise from UK coaches late last season. Kentucky coaches moved former Trinity star Jared Casey to inside linebacker this spring and former starting outside linebacker Josh Paschal to defensive end.