By Tony Thomas
Heading into spring practice, Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Stoops has a lot of holes on his roster, and went into the transfer portal to fill some of those holes. Here are three transfers that will make an impact in Lexington on fall Saturdays.
LB Jamon Dumas-Johnson
Previous School: Georgia Bulldogs
6’1”, 245 lbs.
The projected starter at Weakside linebacker in 2024, Jamon Dumas-Johnson recorded 34 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, and two pass breakups for Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs last season.
However, he is coming off an injury that forced him to miss the final five games of the season. One of the top LB portal additions, Dumas-Johnson did record a season-high seven tackles in a win over Missouri.
Georgia’s Jamon Dumas-Johnson lines up in the A-gap and is shot out of a cannon to beat the OC and hammer the QB for the sack.
The Bulldogs LB is one of the top players at his position in the 2024 NFL Draft. (So is CB Kamari Lassiter who helps clean this up.) pic.twitter.com/ivq3ifPa4R
— Seven Rounds in Heaven (@7RoundsInHeaven) October 8, 2023
An All-American and All-SEC performer in 2022, Dumas-Johnson has 125 tackles, 17 tackles for loss, and 9.5 sacks to his credit. As a Top 10 nationally-ranked linebacker in high school, Dumas-Johnson was featured in an HBO documentary titled “The Cost of Winning” about the obstacles his high school football team had to overcome at St. Frances Academy in Baltimore, MD.
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WR Ja’Mori Maclin
Previous School: North Texas Mean Green
5’11”, 183 lbs.
A 2nd Team All-AAC selection a season ago, Ja’Mori Maclin caught 57 passes for 1004 yards and 11 touchdowns and is the projected starter at slot wide receiver for the Wildcats.
https://twitter.com/TSV__1/status/1698075185826742606
Maclin gained over 100 yards receiving in a game four times in 2023, including a season-high six catches for 163 yards and two touchdowns in a 45-14 win over Temple.
In addition, Maclin caught five or more passes in six games, including five in a row, and caught at least one TD pass in eight straight games.
QB Brock Vandagriff
Previous School: Georgia Bulldogs
6’3”, 210 lbs.
Already “penciled in” as the starter at quarterback with two seasons of eligibility remaining, Brock Vandagriff comes to Lexington as a dual-threat QB ready to show fans what he can do for a full season. Vandagriff saw action in only eight games last season, throwing for 165 yards, two touchdowns, and no INTs while completing 66% of his passes in mop-up duty.
Former Georgia QB Brock Vandagriff has committed to Kentucky!! 😼🔵#BBN pic.twitter.com/wAPnYynZqB
— Josh Ragan (@dopesteditz1) December 6, 2023
Vandagriff was a 4-star prospect in high school, ranked #5 nationally in the 2021 class, ahead of players like Kaidon Salter, JJ McCarthy, and Kyle McCord. In his senior year, Vandagriff threw for 4,162 yards, 46 touchdowns, and seven INTs. In addition, he added 503 yards on the ground and 17 more scores. For his prep career, Vandagriff accounted for almost 12,000 total yards and 156 touchdowns.
The Wildcats have posted three consecutive winning seasons. Can Stoops and his staff muster enough talent to continue that streak? We shall see. The first four weeks of the 2024 schedule will be played in the friendly confines of Kroger Field, but two of those four are SEC games against South Carolina and Georgia in the conference’s first season with no divisions.
