{"id":71939,"date":"2025-01-25T12:00:55","date_gmt":"2025-01-25T17:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=71939"},"modified":"2025-01-25T10:30:47","modified_gmt":"2025-01-25T15:30:47","slug":"whos-new-on-defense-at-kentucky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/01\/25\/whos-new-on-defense-at-kentucky\/","title":{"rendered":"Who’s New On Defense At Kentucky"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last time out we talked about all the new players Kentucky brought in on offense. <\/a>Much like offense the Cats needed a rebuild on defense as they lost two starters to the NFL and a number of others through the portal and graduation. As a result, they had to hit the transfer portal hard, and that’s exactly what they did. Going position by position let’s show you who’s new on defense at Kentucky.<\/p>\n

Cats Continue The Rebuild<\/h2>\n

Help Up Front<\/h3>\n

The Wildcats lost a ton of production on the defense line from 2024. Deone Walker<\/a> is likely a second-day draft pick. In addition, Tre’vonn Rybka and Octavious Oxendine graduated while Keeshawn Silver<\/a> transferred to USC. As a result, defensive line coach Anwar Stewart needed players and quick.<\/p>\n

Heading the list is Mi’Quise Grace, <\/a>the reigning Missouri Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Year. Playing for South Dakota<\/a> the 6-foot-4, 255-pound edge rusher made 64 tackles including 18.5 for a loss. In addition, the redshirt sophomore had 9.5 sacks and three passes defended. He also forced two fumbles and had two fumble recoveries, returning one for a touchdown. His numbers tied him for 16th in FCS in sacks and tenth in tackles for loss.<\/p>\n

Another big pickup for Kentucky is defensive tackle David Gusta<\/a>, who comes to Lexington from Washington State. Last season with the Cougars<\/a> Gusta recorded 21 tackles, three for loss, one sack, and three pass breakups.<\/p>\n

In addition, Pro Football Focus gave him the fourth-best pass-rush grade (82.4) by an interior defensive lineman. The 6-3, 300-pound Gusta chose the Cats over Texas A&M and Tennessee. 247 Sports Gusta ranks him as the third-best defensive line prospect <\/a>in the portal and the 26th-best player.<\/p>\n

A third defensive lineman is Jayden Williams<\/a> who comes to Lexington from Wyoming. In 2024 the 6-foot-4, 290-pounder made 28 tackles, including two for a loss. He has a really good chance of being the starting nose guard for the Cats.<\/p>\n

That takes care of the defensive line. As we continue introducing you to who’s new on defense at Kentucky let’s move to the linebackers.<\/p>\n

Shoring Up The Middle<\/h3>\n

The linebacker position is another one hit hard by players leaving. Kent State transfer Kameron Olds<\/a> is the heir apparent to J.J. Weaver<\/a>‘s outside linebacker spot. Playing for the Flashes the senior made 42 tackles, with seven for a loss. In addition, he recorded six sacks and an interception. His sack total ranked him ninth in the MAC.<\/p>\n

The player likely to back up Olds is USC transfer Sam Greene<\/a>. As a redshirt freshman, he had 15 tackles, three for a loss, and an interception.<\/p>\n

Moving inside Marshall transfer\u00a0Landyn Watson<\/a> takes over one of the spots left behind by Jamon Dumas-Johnson<\/a> and D’Eryk Jackson<\/a>. A senior, Watson was one of a slew of players who departed Marshall in the wake of Charles Huff leaving for Southern Mississippi. If you remember the Thundering Herd were so decimated by transfers they opted out of the Independence Bowl. Watson had 65 tackles and an interception for Marshall last season.<\/p>\n

There’s only one position left as we tell you who’s new on defense at Kentucky.<\/p>\n

Depth In The Defensive Backfield<\/h3>\n

If there’s one spot where defensive coordinator Brad White is pretty well set that’s the secondary. In fact, the Cats will likely start 2025 with returnees at all four defensive back positions. As a result the Cats only brought in one player through the portal. Kevis Thomas<\/a>, a junior to be from Maryland, is the only newcomer. In two seasons Thomas made 23 tackles and had two passes defended. He adds depth to a strong secondary.<\/p>\n

One For The Other Side<\/h3>\n

While we focused on defense it needs to be mentioned since our last post Mark Stoops brought in another huge piece for the Big Blue Wall. Shiyazh Pete, a 6-foot-8, 329-pound offensive tackle from New Mexico State picked the Cats over Vanderbilt. Michigan and Nebraska were two other schools heavily involved with Pete. His choosing UK over Vandy is somewhat significant as the player he protected for years, Diego Pavia<\/a> is the signal caller for the Commodores.<\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/h3>\n

Kentucky had a very interesting strategy heading into the portal season. Many of their targets came from Group Of Five schools rather than the “Power Four.” In addition, several of the new players are in essence one year rentals. It’s an interesting ploy, we’ll see if it pays off against another brutal SEC schedule.<\/p>\n

Thanks for checking out our look at Who’s New On Defense At Kentucky. Next time out we’re going to go position by position looking at a depth chart for the Wildcats.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last time out we talked about all the new players Kentucky brought in on offense. Much like offense the Cats needed a rebuild on defense as they lost two starters to the NFL and a number of others through the portal and graduation. As a result, they had to hit the transfer portal hard, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":877,"featured_media":71970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[6653,184,34738,140,21,2669,34765,24586,7887,7850,34814,34813],"class_list":["post-71939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-sec","tag-big-blue-wall","tag-cfb","tag-david-gusta","tag-fbs","tag-kentucky-wildcats","tag-marshall-thundering-herd","tag-miquise-grace","tag-ncaa-2","tag-pro-football-focus","tag-recruiting-rankings","tag-shiyzak-pete","tag-south-dakota-football"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/877"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71939"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71971,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71939\/revisions\/71971"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}