DJ Hunter likes the idea of playing closer to family in Lexington.
Kentucky quarterback commit DJ Hunter says his football career has already been a “journey” as he played his high school freshman season in Memphis before moving to Knoxville for his sophomore season.
He verbally committed to Kentucky last month over a lot of other choices because he wanted to finalize his collegiate future. However, he might not be through moving during his prep career.
His mother is from Lexington and met his father when he was playing basketball at Eastern Kentucky. His dad eventually transferred to Southwest Tennessee Community College and then to Central Missouri before settling in Memphis after his playing career ended.
Kentucky safety Ty Bryant is Hunter’s cousin and Hunter’s grandmother and other family members still live in Lexington. There has been speculation that his family might move back to the Bluegrass since he already knows he wants to play his college football at Kentucky.
Hunter was on WLAP Sunday Morning Sports Talk with myself and Anthony White, a former UK all-SEC running back, and I asked him if there was a chance he might play his junior season in Kentucky.
“It’s a possibility. Me and my family are still trying to get some things figured out for my junior year,” Hunger said. “I like the idea of being closer to family in Lexington and being closer to the University of Kentucky.”
While his mother is from Lexington, he likes the idea of getting back to Kentucky — he moved before he even started grade school. One major reason he committed to Kentucky was to play in front of family.
“I could tell (the staff) really wanted me up there. The coaches, they’re good people. They recruited me pretty hard. They wanted me to come up there. I just love the school, I love Kentucky,” Hunter said.
Hunter is confident of a move to Kentucky will have a “pretty equal level of competition” to what he faced in Tennessee last season.
White pointed out to Hunter that most of the quarterbacks on Kentucky’s 2025 roster will either be gone or close to out of eligibility.
“I just want to come and compete for a starting job,” Hunter said.
Hunter spent time with Bryant on two of his visits to Kentucky.
“We went out to some places. He took me around and we were just talking about Kentucky football,” Hunter said.
Hunter’s father tried to get his son to play basketball like he did but soon realized football was going to be his son’s “main sport” because of his skill level.
Hunter said his favorite football player growing up was former Auburn and NFL quarterback Cam Newton.
“I grew up watching him when he was at Auburn. That was my favorite player,” Hunter said. “Even in the NFL, that was my favorite player.”
3 Responses
Your living the dream Larry. I would do anything to be in your situation. Being able to talk to all these great athletes. Dj has moved around alot. It would be good for him to stick and stay somewhere for 2 years. He could learn and perfect a offense and he could form a chemistry with his teammates. The quarterback position you have to be the leader of the team. You can’t let a tight end or lineman be the leader. The quarterback has to have a special bond with the players and that comes from spending time together. Kentucky high school football is ok it depends on what region you play in. If he comes to Kentucky either play in Lexington or Louisville. Louisville has heavyweights like Male Manual Trinity St. X and CAL. My son plays for Fern Creek its his first year playing and he’s starting defensive line in spring practice. He’s 6’2" 255 pounds. He’s doing great for his first year ever playing. He never had interest in sports until now so I never pushed him to play even tho I played high school basketball baseball and football. I played for a Christian school in 1a. Beth haven Christian is were I went 9-11 grade then I transferred to Doss for my senior year to play baseball and graduated early in December and got a job at UPS. I will regret that decision for the rest of my life. I batted .545 as a sophomore and .585 as a junior. I switched to Doss to play against better competition and lost interest. 😅
No disrespect to this kid but if he plays this season it will mean that both 1 & 2 QB’s bottomed out. Not a good way to get thrown to the wolves of the SEC. Tell me we have a plan B.
Bush has a plan B! Count on it!