Kentucky’s Georgia transfers live up to the hype in.
Arguably Kentucky’s two most important transfer portal additions over the offseason came from the University of Georgia in quarterback Brock Vandagriff and inside linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson. Saturday both proved their value as the duo helped lead the way to a 31-0 weather-shortened victory over Southern Miss.
Vandagriff, making his first collegiate start, completed 12-of-18 passes for 169 yards and three touchdowns on one interception while adding 35 yards rushing on five attempts.
“Brock, I thought did a super job managing the game,” UK head coach Mark Stoops said postgame. “For a guy playing his first time starting like that in our stadium. I listened to coach [Bush] Hamdan a lot, and the way he coaches, he does an excellent job with them, but he talks to them about a couple of times a game you have to make plays with your legs.
“You have to make plays extending it and throwing the ball and you guys all watch football and you see it all the time. I thought he did an excellent job of making good decisions. Pulling the ball down and scrambling for tough yards and buying time in the pocket to throw it and then throwing it on time and in rhythm as well.”
Vandagriff’s physicality was on full display in his UK debut. He took several shots, including a nine-yard gain on his first rushing attempt of the night and UK’s second play from scrimmage of the season, and a perfect strike to Dane Key for a 21-yard gain.
“Two rules, like going all the way back from high school with my dad and stuff, third down and for a touchdown, obviously you’re gonna try to go get that better than that, try to protect yourself,” Vandagriff said postgame. Maybe I was just a little amped up going in the night or something, but I was just trying to get some yards for the boys.”
“He did look like Will [Levis] on a couple of those runs,” Stoops added. He’s tough and he’s physical and he played about like I expected him to.”
The lone blemish on Vandagriff’s final line was a tipped interception in the red zone on UK’s opening drive of the season.
Luckily, two plays later his former Georgia turned Kentucky teammate picked him up as Dumas-Johnson grabbed an interception of his own.
“Definitely felt good,” Dumas-Johnson said of his interception. “They were dragging me up and riding me down two plays in a row. I knew the second one, they were trying to get it over my head because they had the tight end up the line. I just tried to get my hand on it, when I saw it spinning in the air, I knew I had a chance to get it.
“It was kind of déjà vu, my freshman year at Georgia, my second play of the game, I had an interception. It was a pick-six, but I didn’t get it this time.”
Along with the interception, Dumas-Johnson, who started at middle linebacker, added two tackles and a quarterback hurry in his UK debut.
“I was joking on the sidelines saying I didn’t think you had that in him,” Stoops said. “I was telling you guys. He’s a little more sudden than you think. He’s done some really good things.”
His play along with the rest of UK’s front seven helped limit Southern Miss to just five rushing yards on the night as Kentucky recorded two sacks and seven tackles for a loss in its second shutout of the Stoops era joining a 31-0 blanking of Youngstown State in 2022.
“One of our key points was load the line of scrimmage,” Jamon Dumas-Johnson said. “You’ve gotta win it. You win the line of scrimmage, you win the game.”
Not only did Kentucky add Vandagriff and Dumas-Johnson to be impact makers, but it hopes that both will help bring some of the winning culture from Georgia, in which both players were a part of two national championship teams, to Lexington. Saturday, the duo provided Stoops and co. what they were hoping to see.
