Kentucky star J.J. Weaver named Mayo Clinic Comeback Player of the Year winner
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University of Kentucky linebacker J.J. Weaver was recognized as a Mayo Clinic Comeback Player of the Year winner on Tuesday.
Weaver, a sophomore who suffered a season-ending knee injury last November, was named one of three award winners along with Michigan’s Aidan Hutchinson and Florida State’s McKenzie Milton. The trio will be recognized formally during a ceremony at the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 1 (Weaver will not be in attendance; Kentucky plays Iowa in the Citrus Bowl that same day).
“We commend Aidan, McKenzie, J.J. and all of the inspiring student-athletes we recognized this season for sharing their personal stories of overcoming adversity to help fans better appreciate the roads these young men have traveled,” said Doug Vance, executive director of the College Sports Information Directors of America, the organization that names winners in coordination with the Associated Press and the Fiesta Bowl. “We hope these stories of achievement can inspire other people to meet the challenges in their own lives.”
In the last year, Weaver lost two mentors. Terrance Weaver, J.J.’s father, was murdered in a Georgia shooting in June 2020. Rob Reader, Weaver’s coach at Moore High School, died in August from liver cancer. Weaver has undergone grief counseling for both deaths in coordination with his physical rehab, which started soon after he tore his ACL during UK’s game at Florida on Nov. 28, 2020.
His counseling has been as crucial to his on-field performance this year as his physical rehab.
“It helped keep my mind off all the negativity,” Weaver said. “Just staying positive. Everything happened for a reason. My father getting killed happened for a reason. This award goes to him, most definitely.
Weaver was a four-star recruit out of Moore who signed with Kentucky as part of the 2019 class over offers from Louisville, Miami and Purdue. He appeared in three games as a true freshman in 2019 before a breakout campaign in 2020, after which he was named to the coaches’ All-SEC Freshman Team.
He shared that Reader, who coached him for three seasons starting in his sophomore year, made him take the ACT five times in order to make sure he would be academically eligible upon enrolling at Kentucky.
“That man right there was like a father to me,” Weaver said. “Like Coach (Brad) White, like Coach (Mark) Stoops.”
Weaver in the 2021 regular season led UK in sacks (six), interceptions (two) and had 34 total tackles, 10 for a loss (second on the team behind Josh Paschal). He played in each of Kentucky’s games, the first of which was staged about nine months after his surgery.
“Remarkable is a pretty spot-on word,” White, UK’s defensive coordinator and Weaver’s position coach, said of his play this season. “ ... To have to deal with the adversity that he’s dealt with over the last 18 months? Just one event can really cause a lot of disruption in a person’s life, and for him to go with multiple stacked on top of each other? His resilience, his toughness, his grit, his ability to open up and seek help in different places and be vulnerable, shows the kind of human being he is. ...
“It’s an amazing story, and the awesome part about it, too, is it’s just the beginning of the book.”
Weaver said Tuesday that he wasn’t sure at that point he was ready to come back, or that he would be able to contribute the level of production he was able to over the course of UK’s season.
“God just kept blessing me throughout all the trials and tribulations I went through,” Weaver said. “I just want to thank the Man from above. I just put the work in. I believed in myself. My teammates believed in me. You guys believed in me. I had a lot of people behind me. ...
“At my lowest point, it felt like I didn’t have nobody, but I really did. The whole BBN. My team, everybody outside of football. I needed everybody the most. I was so lost in my head, I didn’t know what to do.”
Weaver is UK’s second Comeback Player of the Year winner in as many years. Offensive guard Kenneth Horsey, who underwent heart surgery prior to enrolling at UK, was one of three winners following the 2020 season.
Next game
No. 22 Kentucky vs. No. 15 Iowa
What: VRBO Citrus Bowl
When: 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 1
Where: Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Fla.
TV: ABC-36
Records: Kentucky 9-3, Iowa 10-3
Series: First meeting
This story was originally published December 21, 2021 at 12:08 PM.
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