Marquan McCall Accepts Invite to East-West Shrine Game
Kentucky senior nose guard Marquan McCall has accepted an invite to the 2022 East-West Shrine Bowl, it was announced today. The 97th annual game is set for Thursday, Feb. 3 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas at 8 p.m. ET. It will air on the NFL Network. In a substantial change from the last decade-plus, the East-West Shrine Bowl is now a part of NFL Pro Bowl Week.
McCall is the 38th Wildcat to be invited to the East-West Shrine Game since 1954, the ninth under head coach Mark Stoops and the second this season. In Stoops’ tenure, he joins Luke Fortner, who also accepted an invitation to play in the game, along with Darrian Miller (2014), Za’Darius Smith (2014), C.J. Johnson (2015), Derrick Baity (2018), C.J. Conrad (2018), “Bunchy” Stallings (2018), Brandin Echols (2020) and Landon Young (2020).
The 6-foot-3, 344-pound senior from Detroit, has played in 39 career games for the Wildcats with 10 starting assignments. Despite missing four games to injury in 2021, McCall has had an impressive senior season, starting the year by dropping nearly 40 pounds (from 381 to 344). In eight games, he totaled seven tackles, including 3.5 tackles for loss and had two quarterback hurries, helping the Wildcats finish the regular-season 9-3 and advance to their school-record sixth consecutive bowl game.
Three additional Wildcats, Yusuf Corker, Darian Kinnard and Josh Paschal, have accepted invitations to play in the Reese’s Senior Bowl to be played on Saturday, Feb. 5 at 2:30 p.m. ET at the University of South Alabama, Hancock Whitney Stadium in Mobile, Alabama. That game also will be televised on the NFL Network.
