{"id":85914,"date":"2026-03-21T16:14:53","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T20:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=85914"},"modified":"2026-03-21T16:14:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T20:14:53","slug":"2026-kentucky-spring-preview-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2026\/03\/21\/2026-kentucky-spring-preview-edge\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Kentucky Spring Preview: Edge"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’ve entered the month of March, which for sports fans means three of the greatest weeks of the year, the NCAA Tournament. However, March also means we are well into spring practice for Will Stein’s first Kentucky football squad. That will culminate in a spring game on April 18th. To get you ready, we’re going position by position, looking at the Kentucky Wildcats. Our focus is now on the defense, and in our last installment, we began with the defensive line. <\/a>This time, we finish up with a look at the players coached by new assistant Tony Washington Jr. Let’s introduce you to them with our 2026 Kentucky Spring Preview: Edge.<\/p>\n

A New Look For The Wildcats<\/h2>\n

Who’s Gone From Last Year<\/h3>\n

One of the biggest losses from 2025 is Stephen Soles Jr.<\/a> A season ago, Soles led the Wildcats with 3.5 sacks to go along with 11 tackles, two forced fumbles, and two passes defended. Under the previous regime, Soles was used mainly in passing situations. It would have been interesting to see how the new staff would have used him. However, it’s a moot point, and Soles is now at Arkansas.<\/p>\n

Poised For Big Seasons<\/h3>\n

Mi’Quise Humphrey-Grace <\/a>was a huge recruiting win for Kentucky before the 2025 season.\u00a0An FBS All-American,<\/a> Grace was named Missouri Valley Conference Defensive Player Of The Year and a first-team All-American playing for powerhouse South Dakota. The redshirt senior put up good numbers in his first year after moving from FBS to FCS. In fact, he tied Soles for team lead with 3.5 sacks. Furthermore, he recorded 31 tackles, seven for a loss, to go along with two passes defended and a forced fumble.<\/p>\n

Under new defensive coordinator Jay Bateman, Kentucky is moving to a 4-3 front. This allows Humphrey-Grace to play his natural defensive end and could become a leader on defense.<\/p>\n

Following two years at USC,\u00a0Sam Greene <\/a>came to Lexington for the 2025 campaign. Playing in nine games, the redshirt junior made 25 tackles, three for a loss and one sack. Unfortunately for the Big Blue Nation, Greene suffered an ACL injury in Kentucky’s big win over Florida. He won’t practice in the spring and may miss the beginning of the 2026 season. Assuming he comes back totally healthy, he can have a big role for the defense.<\/p>\n

Continuing our 2026 Kentucky Spring Preview: Edge, let’s look at a few returning players.<\/p>\n

Looking To Break Through<\/h3>\n

Coming out of high school, Brian Robinson <\/a>was a huge recruiting win for Mark Stoops as he ranked as the 13th-best edge rusher in the 2024 class. However, his high ranking hasn’t carried over to college yet. He redshirted his first season in Lexington and did not appear in a game last year. Saying this is a big year for Robinson is a huge understatement.<\/p>\n

Cedric Works <\/a>was a surprise as a true freshman. Playing more than 150 snaps, Works made 16 tackles, including two for a loss. He was very strong against the run and has the ability to play both defensive end and linebacker. Works is another guy poised for a big year.<\/p>\n

Lorenzo Cowan <\/a>came to Lexington after one year at USC. The younger brother of defensive lineman\u00a0Tavion Gadson<\/a> was very effective at the end of the year. Cowan had 13 tackles with 4.5 for a loss. In addition, he recorded 2.5 sacks and forced two fumbles. Much like his better big things could be ahead for him this year.<\/p>\n

Let’s wrap up our 2026 Kentucky Spring Preview: Edge with some incoming Wildcats.<\/p>\n

Pushing For Playing Time<\/h3>\n

Antonio O’Berry comes to Lexington after two seasons at FCS Gardner-Webb. A season ago, he ranked sixth on the Bulldog team with 52 tackles. In addition, he was second with 10.5 tackles for a loss, 4.5 sacks, and seven pass breakups. As a result, he was named to the All-OVC-Big South first team. If he can make a similar jump as Grace the year before, O’Berry could be a difference maker in 2026.<\/p>\n

Ben Duncum is an incoming freshman from Austin, Texas. He’s one of the players who committed to Kentucky under Stoops and remained in Lexington after the coaching change. According to 247 Sports<\/em>, Duncum is the 122nd best player <\/a>in the Lone Star State.<\/p>\n

Coming from state power, Covington Catholic Ben Reeves transferred to Kentucky after two years at NAIA Georgetown College. He played in 10 games in 2025, making 30 tackles, five for a loss, 3.5 sacks, two pass breakups, and a forced fumble. Reeves was a teammate of current Kentucky tight end Willie Rodriguez<\/a> at Covington Catholic.<\/p>\n

Lastly, Tyler Thomas comes to Kentucky after spending the last two years at South Alabama. Before that, he played one year at UAB. The redshirt junior made 17 tackles in 2025 and had two sacks. With Greene out, he’s a player who could see early playing time.<\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/h3>\n

Like many positions on the Wildcat squad, the edge is another one where players need to step up. Grace is one of your starters, while the other positions are up for grabs. If he’s fully healthy, you have to think Greene is a starter. It’s a matter of who fills that spot until then.<\/p>\n

Thanks for checking out our 2026 Kentucky Spring Preview: Edge here at Last Word On College Football. Next time we’ll move to the linebackers.<\/p>\n

Main Image: Mark Zaleski \/ The Tennessean \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve entered the month of March, which for sports fans means three of the greatest weeks of the year, the NCAA Tournament. However, March also means we are well into spring practice for Will Stein’s first Kentucky football squad. That will culminate in a spring game on April 18th. To get you ready, we’re going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":877,"featured_media":85940,"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":[2,35579,17,3],"tags":[9802],"class_list":["post-85914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-kentucky-wildcats","category-news","category-sec","tag-will-stein"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85914","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=85914"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85941,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85914\/revisions\/85941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}