Kentucky lucky to have former North Hardin standout Jordan Lovett ready to help secondary

Jordan Lovett (25) had seven tackles at Florida. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Kentucky lost defensive back Vito Tisdale, who was being counted on to be a major playmaker this season, to injury before the season started. Now safety Jalen Geiger, a player former UK all-SEC defensive back Van Hiles thought could be the next Mike Edwards for the Cats, is out for the season after suffering a knee injury last week at Florida.

Kentucky’s secondary had issues in 2021 and certainly now losing two playmakers two games into this season could be an issue. Geiger returned an interception for a touchdown against Vanderbilt last year and had 18 tackles while starting two games. He had three tackles at Florida before getting injured early in the game on an illegal block.

The good news for Kentucky is that former North Hardin standout Jordan Lovett, a redshirt freshman, filled Geiger’s role well at Florida. He had seven tackles, second high on the team, against the Gators.

While Stoops did not want to see Geiger injured, he was delighted with the way Lovett played.

“I saw Jordan really improve and take another step in the right direction,” Stoops said. “It’s just getting reps under his belt, getting confidence, communicating, executing, just being more dialed in and that comes from experience.”

Lovett consistently drew praise from the UK coaching staff during spring practice and got more after the win at Florida from Vince Marrow. “How about Jordan Lovett? When that running back broke free, I thought that is a touchdown. Instead, Jordan tacked him. He is going to be big-time player.”

Lovett was a three-star prospect and top 40 safety nationally in his recruiting class. He did not play safety until his junior year and then had 15 interceptions that season. As a senior he had 57 tackles and two more interceptions.

He picked Kentucky over Boston College, Cincinnati, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Missouri and West Virginia.

“Playing safety there’s a lot of things that we practice hard, a lot of different shifts, formations, just a lot of things,” Stoops said. “But things change and things change in a hurry. The practice field, reps and experience helps.”

Redshirt junior Taj Dodson is listed No. 2 on the depth chart behind Lovett now.