2024 OFFICIAL KENTUCKY FOOTBALL YEARBOOK Presented By Opportunities Aplenty Governor's Cup Glory Inside: ‘24 WALKERKEYHAIRSTONBROWN© 2024 The Coca-Cola Company. “Coke” and “Coca-Cola” are registered trademarks of The Coca-Cola Company. PROUD SPONSOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY GREAT TASTE TACKLE GAME DAY WITH$ 600+ IN SAVINGS EVERY WEEK WITH DIGITAL COUPONS Scan here to start saving. Official Grocer of UK Athletics.2024 Kentucky Football Yearbook is published by the University of Kentucky Athletics Department. University of Kentucky Athletics Director: Mitch Barnhart Communications and Public Relations: Susan Lax, Matt May, Tony Neely 410 West Vine Street Suite 150 Lexington, KY 40507 859-226-4368 UK Sports Marketing Powered by JMI Sports Brandon Baker, Curtis Burch, Randy Carter, John Foellger, Annie Gillenwater, Devin Jones, Michelle Knezovic, Jensen Linder, Adair Mattingly, Seth Poteat, Kim Ramsay, Lance Reed, Chad Ruhl, Brad Tucker Design & Publishing Managing Editor Jai Giffin Creative Director Jamie Barker Production Assistance Laura Doolittle, Lisa Roberts2024 Wildcats 18 .............................Alex Afari Jr. 20 .........Anthony Brown-Stephens 22 ...........................Barion Brown 24 ..................................Ty Bryant 26 .............................Jager Burton 28 ..........................Zion Childress 30 .....................................Eli Cox 32 ............................Marques Cox 34 ...........................Jordan Dingle 35 .............Jamon Dumas-Johnson 36 .....................Maxwell Hairston 38 .........................D’Eryk Jackson 39 ...............................Josh Kattus 40 .................................Dane Key 42 ............................Jordan Lovett 44 ................Octavious Oxendine 45 ................................Dylan Ray 46 .............................Alex Raynor 47 .........................Trevonn Rybka 48 ...........Demie Sumo-Kamgbaye 49 ........................ Chip Trayanum 50 .......................Brock Vandagriff 51 ..........................Deone Walker 52 ................................J.J. Weaver 55 .......................Kentucky Roster 57 .....................Returning Players 68 .......................Cats on the Map 2024 Coaching Staff 72 .........Head Coach Mark Stoops 76 .....................Assistant Coaches This is Kentucky 80 ..........Joe Craft Training Facility 82 ...................Nutter Field House 86 .................Player Development 87 ..........Community Involvement 88 .............University of Kentucky 89 ...................................Housing 90 ...............................Game Day 91 ................................Nike Swag 92 ..................The Kentucky Road 94 ...............................Academics 96 ...Kentucky Football in the NFL 98 ........................SEC Dominates 2024 Opponents 100 ..........................Southern Miss 101 .........................South Carolina 102 ....................................Georgia 103 ........................................Ohio 104 ..................................Ole Miss 105 ................................Vanderbilt 106 .....................................Florida 107 .....................................Auburn 108 ................................Tennessee 109 .............................Murray State 110 ........................................Texas 111 .................................Louisville The University 112 ..................UK Sports Network 114 .............President Eli Capilouto 116 ...................AD Mitch Barnhart On the Cover Deone Walker, Dane Key, Maxwell Hairston and Barion Brown Opportunities Aplenty Experienced UK team looks to take on challenges of new look SEC. 4 Governor’s Cup Glory A look at Kentucky’s top 10 wins over Louisville as the Governor’s Cup kicks off for the 30th year this season. 8 Contents n 2024 Kentucky Wildcats Football @UKSportsNetwork 3Opportunities Experienced UK team looks to take on challenges of new look SEC. By Tom Leach “Voice of the Wildcats”"G reat moments are born from great opportunity." If there was a movie line to sum up the chal- lenge facing a team, that line from the coach Herb Brooks character in "Miracle" (about the 1980 Olympic hockey team) fits well for the upcoming Kentucky football season. Georgia, Texas and Ole Miss were picked first, second and fourth in the preseason media poll and the Wildcats face all three, two of them on the road and a win over one or more would definitely qualify as a great moment. That's life in the now 16-team Southeast- ern Conference and Mark Stoops has much more experienced squad this season with which to take on the challenge. "You have a good quarterback from the transfer portal, you've got the defense that's in place (led by All-America candidate De- one Walker at DT), your interior of the of- fensive line is great, it's just a typical Ken- tucky team," Pete Fiutak, longtime writer for collegefootballnews.com, said in an ap- pearance on "The Leach Report" radio show. "You might have trouble in a 45-42 shootout but that's not how this team has played un- der Stoops." Fiutak's formula for a season exceeding expectations is to sweep the four non-con- ference games, take care of the likes of South Carolina, Auburn, Vandy and Florida and then pull off an upset or two from the quartet of games against Georgia, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Texas. Seth Emerson covers SEC football for the- athletic.com and he told that same audience that Kentucky has some ingredients for be- ing a surprise team this season. The big key, he says, is the play for quarterback Brock Vandagriff. Emerson has covered Georgia Bulldogs football for many years and so he knows a little more than most perhaps about Vandagriff's game. "If Kentucky comes out there and Van- dagriff looks really good in his first couple of games and Jamon Dumas-Johnson (another Georgia transfer, at inside linebacker) and that defense plays well, Kentucky is one of those teams you look at and say they're not the pick to win the league but keep an eye on them to be the periphery of the playoff discussion." As for Vandagriff, Emerson added "he's a good kid, works hard, has some good dual threat ability and has a strong arm. If he can avoid mistakes, if he can make some plays with his legs, then I think this offense can be pretty good." Vandagriff was a five-star quarterback re- cruit out of high school but he found himself buried on the depth chart at Georgia behind more experienced signal-callers; much like the situation Will Levis was in at Penn State before he found his chance to get on the field and prove himself at Kentucky. Greg Vandagriff, Brock's dad, is a long- time high school coach in Georgia (current- ly heading up the football program at Prince Avenue Christian School) and he knows his son has not lost any confidence. "I believe most fathers have what I call 'dad vision' which means you're unrealis- tic. It's only natural but I never wanted to have that, although I was probably guilty at times," Greg said but admitted he was a lit- tle awestruck at times from throws his son would make. "He just has some talent that people haven't seen yet and I know (UGA offensive coordinators) told me about once a week in practice, Brock makes a throw and they look each other and say 'did you see that?' I hope people get to see that (this fall)." Leadership has always come easily for Vandagriff, with his dad pushing him to start that process with the way Brock works in the weight room. "He's embraced it and I think that means a lot to his teammates. When you do that and you run as hard as you can, they see that," Greg said. After Vandagriff chose Kentucky, the of- Quarterback Brock Vandagriff will lead Kentucky's offensive attack this season. @UKSportsNetwork 5fensive coordinator changed as Liam Coen returned to the NFL, leading to Bush Ham- dan leaving a Boise State program where he had thrived to take the opportunity to call the offensive shots for a team in the SEC. Stoops loves what he has seen in Hamdan's approach. "I really love the way he just goes about his business. He is a great teacher. First it starts with the quarterbacks because they're in with them the most but they love the way he teaches," said the man who is now dean of SEC football coaches after Nick Saban's retirement. Stoops added one of his points of emphasis for improvement in the Ken- tucky offensive attack is the pace of play. The Wildcats were 40th in the nation in yards-per-play last season (6.18) but ranked dead last in the number of plays run. "We're not going to go a hundred miles an hour. We're not trying to do that. We're not trying to snap the ball with 30 seconds on the play clock but I am tired of snap- ping it at one or two. We definitely want to get some more plays off and we have that ability to go at a faster pace," Stoops con- tinued. "You've got a quarterback room that has more experienced depth in there than you've had in a while. I think Brock, coming from Georgia, I think we know the level of play that Georgia plays with and not only are they very talented players, but they're very well-coached. And you could just see him when he went in there (in limited roles). The way he managed the game, the way he went through his progressions, just the com- fort level, the total operation. You know, he's a guy that we're very excited about." UK also added a transfer quarterback with an abundance of game experience in former Owensboro high school star Gavin Wimsatt who transferred in from Rutgers. Hamdan has talked about utilizing both of them because the Cats' new offensive co- ordinator wants his quarterback to be able to use their legs as well as their arms to put pressure on opposing defenses. Hamdan has some fun options as a play- caller, given UK's returning talent at wide receiver and tight end. At running back, replacing the production of Ray Davis will be a tall order but the Wildcats added Ohio State transfer Chip Trayanum to the mix in that room. The offensive line is a mix of returnees and transfer portal additions that should give the team more depth than it has had at those positions in the last few sea- sons. Stoops is excited about the return of offensive line coach Eric Wolford who re- turns to Lexington after coaching the Ala- bama front five the past two seasons. "The first thing you see is the mentality. He's a guy that will not tolerate being aver- age," said the coach, who wants the offen- sive line to recapture that "Big Blue Wall" Two of Kentucky's leading wide receivers Dane Key (above) and Barion Brown (below) return this season. Brown also returned three kickoffs for touchdowns last season. 6 @UKFootballmentality of being physical up front. "I think all the fan base knows that and we want to get back to that, when the whole stadium knew we were going to run the ball and we could still run the ball with success. I want the balance. and I want to be able to get the ball down the field and one of the ways you get the ball down the field is having a strong presence about you in the run game." The winning culture for Stoops will also always feature a stout defense. When Ken- tucky won 10 games in 2018, the first time since 1977 that a Kentucky team did that, and then repeated that total in 2021, the Wildcats ranked second and fourth respec- tively in scoring defense. Last season, the defense slipped to eighth in that category and ranked teams averaged 40 points per game. Those numbers are way out of line with the era in which Brad White has coor- dinated the UK defense so one would rea- sonably expect an adjustment back to the traditional levels, given the talent and expe- rience that will be available on that side of the line of scrimmage. Some strategic additions via the transfer portal shored up areas of potential concern with Dumas-Johnson at inside linebacker plus D.J. Waller comes from Michigan to add depth at the cornerback spot opposite All-SEC candidate Maxwell Hairston and the addition of Alabama safety Kristian Sto- ry should give the Cats at least four safeties to cover two spots. Alongside Dumas-John- son, D'Eryk Jackson is a two-time leading tackler and sixth-year senior edge rusher JJ Weaver returns after a strong finish to the previous campaign. An injury to noseguard Josiah Hayes weakens the defensive line depth a bit but there's still plenty of talent there, led by All-America candidate Walker. As a soph- omore last season, Walker had 55 tackles, 12.5 tackles-for-loss and 7.5 sacks. He also registered 8 quarterback pressures, a partic- ularly impressive stat given he was playing in the middle of the line and getting fre- quently double-teamed. Walker wants to improve on those numbers this season but he's also pushed himself to be more of an off-the-field leader. "Being more outspoken and making sure we don't waver whether we're at a high or a low will be important,“ says Stoops. “One thing I noticed about our baseball team was on the days they won, you couldn't tell that they won. On the days they lost, you couldn't tell they lost. They never changed,” he said. "Our mission is to make sure everybody stays out of trouble, that their grades are right and just being more team-oriented,” Stoops said. “I feel like we're more togeth- er this year. Even our transfers came in and meshed well.” Safety Maxwell Hairston (above) provides experience in the secondary and Deone Walker (below) will anchor Kentucky's defensive line. @UKSportsNetwork 7Next >