{"id":85828,"date":"2026-03-14T13:26:42","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T17:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=85828"},"modified":"2026-03-14T13:26:42","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T17:26:42","slug":"2026-kentucky-spring-preview-defensive-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2026\/03\/14\/2026-kentucky-spring-preview-defensive-line\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Kentucky Spring Preview: Defensive Line"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spring practice is underway as excitement builds for Will Stein’s first Kentucky football team. We’re going position by position, looking at the Cats. In case you missed them, we started with the quarterbacks <\/a>and new signal caller\u00a0Kenny Minchey. <\/a>From there, it was the running backs <\/a>and\u00a0wide receivers. <\/a>Those are two positions where the Cats are hoping for big seasons from players coming through the portal. From there, it was the tight ends, <\/a>one group with almost everyone returning. Lastly, it was the\u00a0totally rebuilt Big Blue Wall. <\/a>Now our focus is on defense, and we start up front. Let’s look at who’s here with our 2026 Kentucky Spring Preview: Defensive Line.<\/p>\n

A Host Of New Players<\/h2>\n

Poised For A Breakout?<\/h3>\n

With the new coaching staff, it means new defensive schemes and patterns. As a result, Kentucky now has two defensive line coaches. Anwar Stewart, who was the only coach retained from Mark Stoops’ previous staff, is now in his ninth year with the Wildcats. He will head the interior linemen. Tony Washington Jr. will coach the Edge rushers and defensive ends.<\/p>\n

After dealing with injuries in his first couple of years, Tavion Gadson <\/a>had a strong 2025 campaign. Playing in 11 games, the junior made 28 tackles, including four for a loss. In addition, he tied for second on the team with 2.5 sacks. Under the new system, he’s a leading candidate for a big 2026 season.<\/p>\n

Returning Depth<\/h3>\n

Jaden Williams<\/a> transferred to Kentucky from Wyoming before the 2025 season. Last year, he played in nine games, recording 10 tackles and a half sack. Williams played over 100 snaps in 2025, with many of them coming late in the season. He’ll likely see time at both the nose and defensive tackle positions.<\/p>\n

Coming out of high school, Kalen Edwards was the 10th-best player in Tennessee in the 2025 class. He appeared in five games as a freshman, making five tackles. He’s another guy who should see minutes at the nose tackle position. Georgia native Nic “Happy” Smith did not see action as a freshman, but he’s someone the staff hopes can push for playing time.<\/p>\n

Let’s wrap up our 2026 Kentucky Spring Preview: Defensive Line with a look at some incoming transfers.<\/p>\n

Help Through The Portal<\/h3>\n

Like every school, the Wildcats looked for immediate help through the transfer portal. Jamarrion Harkless is returning home after two years at Purdue. A graduate of Frederick Douglass High School in Lexington, Harkless played over 400 snaps last season, recording 13 tackles, including 2.5 for a loss. In addition, he had 2.5 sacks. 247 Sports ranks him as the 33rd-best defensive lineman <\/a>in the transfer portal. Harkless is definitely in the mix at the nose tackle spot.<\/p>\n

Dominic Wiseman <\/a>played for South Alabama in 2025 after spending two years at Iowa Western. He played in 11 games, making 23 tackles, including three for a loss and a sack. Wiseman should spell the starters during the season.<\/p>\n

Ahmad Breaux <\/a>comes to Lexington after spending two years at LSU. During his time in Baton Rouge, Breaux made 36 tackles, four for a loss and a half sack. He’s a player the staff thinks can come in and play minutes immediately.<\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/h3>\n

Like many of the positions on the field, the defensive line is one of the places where the Wildcats lost quite a bit from 2025. With the additions of the guys through the portal and the development of returning players, the hope is that they can be quite the force up front. Thanks for checking out the 2026 Kentucky Spring Preview: Defensive Line here at Last Word On College Football. Next time out, we’ll look at the Edge and defensive line positions.<\/p>\n

Main Image: Stephen Lew-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

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

Spring practice is underway as excitement builds for Will Stein’s first Kentucky football team. We’re going position by position, looking at the Cats. In case you missed them, we started with the quarterbacks and new signal caller\u00a0Kenny Minchey. From there, it was the running backs and\u00a0wide receivers. Those are two positions where the Cats are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":877,"featured_media":85853,"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":[2,35579,3],"tags":[9802],"class_list":["post-85828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-kentucky-wildcats","category-sec","tag-will-stein"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85828","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=85828"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85854,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85828\/revisions\/85854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}