With Vito Tisdale sidelined for 2022, who steps up for UK football — and who might it add?
University of Kentucky defensive back Vito Tisdale will miss the entire 2022 season after suffering an injury that will require surgery, Mark Stoops confirmed Thursday.
Matt Jones of Kentucky Sports Radio first reported on Tuesday that Tisdale suffered an ACL and meniscus tear, but Thursday was the first public comment by the university about the severity of the injury. Stoops didn’t share specifics about the nature of the injury other than that medical staff was waiting for swelling to subside before having him go under the knife.
“It’s gonna take a little bit of time before we do the surgery,” Stoops said. “Hopefully everything will go smooth. Our doctors have always done a good job and we get ‘em back in time. But it’s definitely a big loss for our team and especially for Vito, because he’s a very good and very active football player.”
During his first press conference this spring, Stoops called Tisdale one of UK’s “top 11” on defense and said the team was giving him extended looks at the cornerback position. A candidate to go there or shore up the safety rotation, UK will miss Tisdale’s ferocity as a pass rusher and all-around ability to disrupt plays. The former Bowling Green High School star is, pound for pound, one of the best talents on the Wildcats’ roster, and this figured to be a breakout season for the junior, who last year missed most of the season due to legal proceedings.
“He’s very sudden, he had a lot of pop in everything that he did,” Stoops said.
Tisdale’s absence ratchets up the pressure on young guys down the depth chart, of whom a lot was already expected. The only returning starters in the defensive backfield coming into this spring were Carrington Valentine (a junior cornerback) and Ty Ajian (a “super senior” safety). Among the reserves, only safety Jalen Geiger logged significant, consistent snaps on defense last season. Cornerback Andru Phillips and safety Joel Williams, who missed a chunk of practices due to the same legal matter that led to Tisdale’s absence, are two guys on whom defensive coordinator Brad White expects to lean hard throughout the remainder of spring and into the fall.
The former had worked his way into the cornerback rotation as a true freshman before his development was stunted last year. Williams isn’t as explosive or versatile as Tisdale, but Stoops says he’s a good fit for the nickel safety that UK uses in its “medium” packages.
“You can see ‘em really starting to elevate their game,” White said. “They’re not their yet, but they’re starting to take another step to be guys who can be really strong contributors for us and play in the SEC. We need them to continue to push that. Both of them will end up having to be vital pieces of the puzzle this year for us.”
Reinforcements
Ole Miss defensive back Keidron Smith, who entered the transfer portal in January, will purportedly visit Kentucky during its Blue-White scrimmage on April 9. UK is one of four schools — along with Indiana, Missouri and Virginia Tech — that Smith told 247Sports he planned to visit this spring.
Kentucky sought cornerback help before Tisdale went down; the need to bolster its youth with some experienced play-makers seems even more pressing. Whether it comes in the form of Smith — a 10-game starter at cornerback last season who was No. 2 in tackles for the Rebels — or other parties, it’s safe to assume UK is eager to add bodies to the defensive backfield.
“There’s always certain spots where you feel like you have the ability to bring somebody in, and I think that’s certainly a spot we need to keep our eyes open for,” Stoops said Thursday.
Smith would not be the first potential high-impact transfer to arrive by way of Oxford. UK last summer brought in Jacquez Jones, who had a pre-existing relationship with then-linebackers coach Jon Sumrall (now the head coach at Troy). Jones, added to alleviate concerns about depth at middle linebacker, was the Rebels’ leading tackler in 2020. He delivered plenty of hits for Kentucky but also proved to be an asset in pass coverage.
Jones called the portal “a scary place” on Thursday, but said that anyone in it should have faith that they’ll arrive at the right place for them. He did not indicate that he’d talked to Smith about joining UK, but he’d endorse such a move by him or anyone else considering the Wildcats.
“It sounds bad, but I never thought I would be at Kentucky. I didn’t know nothing about Kentucky,” Jones said. “I ended up here, glory be to God. I wasn’t a Kentucky fan growing up. I didn’t watch Kentucky. But I’m a Kentucky fan for life now. It worked out for the better.”
Another name of note to know: Sevyn Banks. The Ohio State transfer was set on entering the NFL Draft following his senior season but concerns over a hip injury derailed his stock, and his family determined it’d be in his best interest to return to college for another season. They also determined that playing that additional season elsewhere was the best path forward. The former top-100 recruit will visit Kentucky sometime this spring.
There’s been speculation that whichever school Banks lands at will have to wait a year for him to rehabilitate his hip. Banks earlier this month seemed to dispute that notion via Twitter. Wrote Banks:
“I will definitely be playing this year FOR SURE (emojis) at a high level don’t gotta worry about that at all (emoji) THE TALK AINT WHAT IT IS don’t look into that miscommunication.” (sic)
