Heading into the 2024 college football season, Kentucky’s most important players on offense and defense have already been pretty well established.
At quarterback, there’s Georgia transfer Brock Vandagriff, a former five-star Peach State recruit. On defense, the Wildcats’ front line is especially strong with 348-pound tackle Deone Walker earning Preseason Walter Camp All-American honors.
Walker returns after starting/playing in all 13 games a season ago and recording 7.5 sacks and 55 tackles, 12.5 for loss.
But it’s neither Vandagriff nor Walker who are Kentucky’s ‘X-factor’ going in 2024, according to a recent piece from The Athletic ($). That honor goes to another Georgia transfer: linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson.
The Athletic’s Seth Emerson elaborates:
“Dumas-Johnson is the X-factor because if he’s as good as he was as a sophomore at Georgia then this defense will be nearly impossible to run on. As Pete Fiutak of College Football News pointed out, Kentucky was 6-1 last year when it held opponents under 100 rushing yards, but 1-5 in the others.”
Dumas-Johnson transferred to Lexington in December after making nine starts for the Bulldogs in 2023. He suffered a broken forearm in Georgia’s win over Missouri on November 4 that cost him the rest of the season. A year earlier, the Butkus Award finalist recorded 70 tackles (nine for loss) and four sacks in the Bulldogs’ 15-0 national championship season.
Kentucky features nine returning starters on defense. In addition to Walker and Dumas-Johnson, there’s defensive linemen Octavious Oxendine (12 tackles, 2.5 sacks) and Keeshawn Silver (17 tackles). Linebackers D’Eryk Jackson (89 tackles, 2.0 sacks) and J.J. Weaver (45 tackles, 7.0 sacks) are back for the Wildcats as well.
In the secondary, the Wildcats return defensive backs Zion Childress, Maxwell Hairston and Jordan Lovett.
Follow us @UKWildcatsWire on X and on Facebook for ongoing coverage of Kentucky Wildcats news, notes and commentary.