Another injury strikes the center of Kentucky football’s defense

Between Kentucky’s two middle linebackers, they’ll have just two good arms.

Two days before the No. 9 Cats face No. 6 Georgia at Kroger Field on Saturday, Coach Mark Stoops confirmed that senior weakside linebacker Jordan Jones injured his hand in practice Wednesday.

This news comes a week after middle linebacker Kash Daniel was forced to play in a bulky, awkward extended cast to cover his surgically repaired left hand.

Jones also is expected to play in the game that will decide the champion of the Southeastern Conference East Division on Saturday with some sort of protective covering over the hand.

“He’s playing. He’ll play,” Stoops said Thursday in his final meeting with the media before Saturday. “Going to have the Q-tip brothers out there. So he’s also got a broken hand. Just getting banged up. A few of our guys are getting to that point.”

Jones, a senior from Youngstown, Ohio, is tied for fourth on the team in tackles this season with 46, including 3.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. Jones also has four pass breakups, two quarterback hurries, a forced fumble and a recovered one.

Jones is coming off his most productive game of the season at Missouri, where he had 10 tackles.

He had five tackles at Georgia a season ago. Two seasons ago when the Bulldogs pulled out a late win in Lexington, Jones had 10 tackles, including 2.5 for loss and a forced fumble.

Daniel, a junior from Paintsville who is third on the team in tackles with 54, acknowledged that playing in the foam and tape brace made things more complicated at Missouri last week.

“It’s different, but it doesn’t restrict me as a football player,” said Daniel, who had three tackles and a pass breakup versus the Tigers. “I’m still playing the same way I am. Obviously tackling was a challenge. As a tackler, though, you’re used to wrapping up, but I don’t have the freedom of my wrist or fingers, so roll tackles are going to be huge.”

Roll tackles, where a tackler uses his full body instead of just his upper body to bring a ball carrier to the ground, are something UK’s defenders practice regularly.

But Daniel said he’s been doing extra work to make sure that “when the time comes, I’ll be able to make that tackle, make that play.”

This is yet another setback for Jones, who has had a series of injuries in the past couple of seasons. As a junior, he missed four games last season after injuring his shoulder. Jones missed almost all of spring practice coming back from surgery on his other shoulder.

The latest Kentucky depth chart has two true freshmen backing up Jones in DeAndre Square and Chris Oats. Oats has played some middle linebacker for UK this season, too, subbing for Daniel when he had to sit a half at Texas A&M for a targeting penalty.

Square is eighth on the team in tackles with 18 in eight games. He also has three quarterback hurries and a pass breakup. Oats has 11 tackles, including 1.5 for loss and a sack.

“We have confidence in those guys,” Stoops said. “They’ve played a lot this year and DeAndre and Chris will both need to play in this game.”

This story was originally published November 1, 2018 at 5:42 PM.