By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Cash Harney is the only quarterback in the history of the Covington Catholic football program who exceeded 1,000 yards in both passing and rushing in the same season. But the 6-foot, 185-pound senior doesn’t know if he’ll get a chance to play that position when he joins the University of Kentucky team as a preferred walk-on next year.
Harney announced his commitment last week, a few days after UK hired Will Stein as head coach. The Wildcats also brought in Pete Nochta as director of recruiting. He held that same position at the University of Louisville.
“Pete Notcha was recruiting me at Louisville and he flipped to UK, so it kind of worked out perfectly,” Harney said. “He was the one that’s really trusted in me and had all the confidence in me since day one.”
Harney knows he wasn’t recruited to play quarterback. When he went to one of Louisville’s football camps, Notcha was more impressed with his speed and athleticism.
“They moved me around quite a bit,” Harney said of the camp session. “They had me at wide receiver, I’d like to pursue that, or even special teams, punt returner, anything they want me to do.”
Over the last four years, Harney had a combined total of 6,855 passing and rushing yards playing quarterback for CovCath and Beechwood.
As a freshman, he replaced an injured teammate as Beechwood’s starting quarterback in the first five games and ended the season with 638 yards passing and 323 rushing for the Tigers’ 2002 Class 2A state championship team.
When he transferred to CovCath as a sophomore, Harney saw limited action on offense. But he had 44 tackles and five interceptions at defensive back on the Colonels’ 2023 team that lost in the Class 4A state championship game to finish 14-1.
In his first season as CovCath’s starting quarterback, Harney totaled 1,303 yards passing and 1,476 yards rushing on the 2024 team that made it to the Class 4A state semifinals.
This season, he passed for 1,941 yards and rushed for 1,002 yards on a CovCath team that made it to the Class 4A region finals.
Those big numbers along with his quickness and athleticism are what prompted UK to offer him a spot on the roster as a preferred walk-on for the Wildcats, who finished 5-7 and 4-8 the last two seasons.
“Obviously, I’ve played (quarterback) all of high school and I think I’m good at that,” Harney said. “But I feel like I’m good anywhere. I’m a good fit for anything.”
Harney said Miami of Ohio, Akron and Thomas More were the other college football teams recruiting him. He may have had a better shot at the quarterback position on those trams, but he always wanted to play for Kentucky.
He plans to finish out this school year and graduate with his senior class before reporting to UK. The multi-talented athlete is also the starting point guard on CovCath’s highly ranked basketball team. Once the basketball season is completed, he’ll begin training to play major college football.
“It’ll be little bit of everything, but mostly getting bigger,” he said of his training goals. “I’ve started working on it, but I won’t fully be into it until after basketball.”