Pair of former Rebels defenders boosts Kentucky football’s hopes of winning at Ole Miss
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Game day: No. 8 Kentucky 31, Northern Illinois 23
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Kentucky football has played at Ole Miss just 10 times in program history, but familiarity with Vaught-Hemingway Stadium should be no problem for the Wildcats’ defense in a top-25 matchup.
Two of UK’s defensive starters have combined for 45 games played in the Rebels’ home stadium. Now, linebacker Jacquez Jones and cornerback Keidron Smith will return to the place they started their college careers with a chance to establish Kentucky as one of the best teams in the Southeastern Conference.
“It’s a bittersweet moment,” Jones said after Kentucky’s 31-23 win over Northern Illinois on Saturday. “That’s where I started. Took me as an 18-year-old, a teenager. It’s going to be a bittersweet moment, but at the end of the day we know we’re going there for one reason.”
The transfer portal era has created unusual homecomings for players across the country since the NCAA changed its rules to allow most athletes to transfer once without sitting out a season.
But many of those players are transferring to a higher profile program or to somewhere with a clearer path to snaps. Seeing two starter-caliber players hop from one SEC program to another without clearly increasing their chances of competing for the College Football Playoff remains unusual.
Kentucky can thank new Troy head coach Jon Sumrall for paving that path.
Sumrall first recruited Jones to Oxford as the Rebels’ linebackers coach in the high school class of 2018. He coached Jones for one season there, helping him earn SEC All-Freshman honors, before returning to his alma mater to coach at Kentucky.
When Jones decided to enter the transfer portal after the 2020 season, Sumrall was the first coach to make contact.
“We had a relationship,” Jones said. “I feel like he was a big part of me coming here. If he wasn’t here, I probably wouldn’t be here.”
Jones made an immediate impact for Kentucky, starting 12 games at middle linebacker and leading the team with 86 tackles in 2021. He added a fumble recovery, a forced fumble, an interception and 3.5 tackles for loss.
The Tuscaloosa, Alabama, native then elected to use the extra year of eligibility granted all players in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic to return to Kentucky for the 2022 season. Around that same time, Smith was making a similar decision to return to college football for his extra year, but he chose to do it at another school.
“As soon as he hit the portal, I got him on speed dial,” Jones said in August. “Told him to get up here. We’re trying to do something special. We came in together at Ole Miss and we’re about to leave out together at Kentucky, so let’s do something special.”
While Jones was quick to give Smith his breakdown of what made Kentucky special, he actually respected his former teammate’s decision-making process enough to avoid piling on the recruiting pitch too thick.
Smith, who had bounced around multiple positions in the defensive secondary at Ole Miss, was looking for a school who would let him play cornerback. Kentucky happened to be in the market for one after an inconsistent 2021 season from its secondary.
“I knew they had something special before I signed,” Smith said. “I wasn’t coming here if they didn’t have something special.”
Smith backed up his confidence in his ability to play cornerback by winning a starting job in preseason camp for Kentucky.
In the 2022 season opener versus Miami (Ohio), he recovered a fumble and returned it 23 yards to set up a Kentucky touchdown. In his second game, he returned an interception 65 yards for a go-ahead touchdown at Florida. Through four games, Smith has totaled seven tackles and four passes defended.
“What (Jones) does at middle linebacker is certainly different than what I do at DB, but seeing him and how he talked about it, we always kept communicating about how much he loved Kentucky and how much Coach (Brad) White, Coach (Mark) Stoops and those guys treated the players,” Smith said. “It was something I really looked at during the recruiting process when I entered the transfer portal.”
Smith acknowledged the chance to return to Ole Miss was an added perk of picking Kentucky, but his primary goal was finding the perfect fit.
The early returns from Kentucky’s 2022 defense suggest both Jones and Smith made a wise decision.
The defense led Kentucky to its upset win at Florida then posted its first shutout since 2009 a week later against FCS Youngstown State. While the defense did not play its best in the Northern Illinois win, the game was in hand by the time the Huskies did most of their damage.
For Kentucky to win at Ole Miss, the Wildcats will undoubtedly need a big game from quarterback Will Levis and the rest of the Kentucky offense. Jones and Smith will not be able to carry the load alone on defense, either.
The duo will need to avoid trying to do too much to prove to their former team how big their impact could have been if they had stayed in Oxford.
But if UK wins for just the third time in program history in Oxford, their track record suggests a big play from Jones or Smith could help tip the scales.
“They mean a lot,” linebacker and Kentucky captain DeAndre Square said. “They take the pressure off my back. They lead in many ways. They don’t have to be the most vocal people, but they lead by example. Fifth year, they’ve been there, done that. I feel like it’s very important.
“We got off to a hot start these first four games, first three games. They’ve been a big part of that because of the work they do and how much they care about the game, how much they care about this team and this defense. I’m just excited to have people like that so I don’t have to take all the pressure.”
Next game
Kentucky at Mississippi
When: Noon Saturday
TV: ESPN
Records: UK 4-0 (1-0 SEC), Mississippi 4-0 (0-0)
This story was originally published September 25, 2022 at 7:00 AM.