Three Wildcats To Play Saturday in Hula Bowl

Three Kentucky football players – Brenden Bates, Jeremy Flax and Tayvion Robinson – will participate in the 78th annual Hula Bowl Saturday, Jan. 13 at the UCF FBC Mortgage Stadium in Orlando, Florida.  Kickoff is slated for noon ET on the CBS Sports Network.

The Hula Bowl is the Nation’s Premier College Football All-Star Game. The Hula Bowl is an event where all NFL, XFL, USFL, and CFL teams will be represented by top scout players during the Hula Bowl week.

Bates, a native of Cincinnati, was a five-time letterwinner at tight end for the Cats. He played in 58 career games with 25 starting assignments and totaled 26 receptions for 272 yards and two scores.

Off the field, Bates graduated in August of 2022 with a degree in consumer economics and family financial counseling and earned a second degree in communication in December ’23.

Flax, a Detroit native, was a three-year letterwinner who saw action in 36 career games with 24 starts on the offensive line. He was a key cog on the Big Blue Wall who was listed on the midseason honor roll for the Joe Moore Award, given to the nation’s best offensive line, in five of the last six seasons. This season, Flax was named the Outland Trophy National Player of the Week and Southeastern Conference Offensive Lineman of the Week after grading at 87 percent with five knockdown blocks in the 33-14 win over No. 22 Florida.

Flax graduated in December of ’22 with a degree in community leadership and development and completed an undergraduate certificate in social work in December of ’23.

Robinson, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, transferred to Kentucky in 2022 after three seasons at Virginia Tech.  He played in 60 career games with 56 starts. He finished his career with 194 career receptions for 2,604 yards and 15 touchdowns (14 receiving, one punt return TD). Additionally, he had 67 punt returns for 639 yards.

Robinson, a two-year letterwinner at UK, ranked in the top 25 on the NCAA’s active career lists in receptions (23rd) and receiving yards (21st). All three of his career 100-yard games came with the Wildcats. In 26 games at UK he totaled 1,049 receiving yards which ranked No. 33 on UK’s all-time receiving yards list.

Since 1946, the Hula Bowl has hosted legendary players, including Heisman Trophy winners Merlin Olsen, Vince Ferragamo, Brian Young, Ricky Williams, Deion Sanders, Fran Tarkenton, Dan Marino, Eric Dickerson, Jim Plunkett, Tony Dorsett, Eric Crouch, Rộn Dayne, Anthony Miller, Mike Garrett, Drew Brees, Billy Sims and many more.

Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.