Defensive coordinator Brad White liked what he saw from Mi'Quise Humphrey-Grace against Eastern Michigan. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky’s defense did not have a great overall game in the lopsided win over Eastern Michigan as it gave up 460 yards that had defensive coordinator Brad White infuriated after the game.
However, defensive lineman Mi’Quise Humphrey-Grace had one of the game’s best plays when he had a chase-down sack on Eastern Michigan quarterback Noah Kim that showed off his quickness and strength. He also had two quarterback hurries and half a tackle for loss.
“He is a guy you love on the edge,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said about the transfer defensive lineman. “He has great length and is very quick and disruptive. On that sack he had him back there and those guys are hard to pin down and his length and change of direction speed showed up.”
Kentucky Radio Network analyst Jeff Piecoro liked how often he saw Humphrey-Grace in the backfield last week.
“He also made some great plays at the line,” Piecoro said. “He did exactly what you wanted. He made the quarterback move his feet and he has great explosiveness to do that.”
Humphrey-Grace knew there were things the defense “could have cleaned up late in the second half” but he was glad to get the win along with the quarterback sack.
“It was the first sack of the season, so it felt good just to get it, especially at home,” he said. “We’re better than what we did today. Harping on the little things like good communication, getting set right, things like that. We have to be better with the little things.”
He said his focus during the bye week would be to get “100 percent healthy again” and give his body some rest.
“We’re going into some tough environments. But just getting back to 100 percent I feel is the main goal for me,” he said.
3 Responses
He definitely looks like the best lineman on the team. We need to do whatever we have to do to keep Grace on the roster for next year as well. I have a feeling he will be a all SEC lineman next year. He just jumped up 2-3 levels in college football. He's looking better than the lineman that have been here 4-5 years like Hayes and Gusta. I think all these too transfers from smaller schools are a hit and miss sometimes. The one player that has surprised me and maybe he's hurt is Stellato. He was a top 3 receiver at Clemson for 3 straight years. Then he comes to Kentucky and lays a egg? 0 catches in 3 games. To his defense is never hardly see him play. I do think from the receiver room that Hardley Gilmore looks like the most polished wide receiver. Kattus has improved majorly from last year to this year. Not just receiving but blocking too. He also looks bigger than last year. I do believe we have a bright future during the Eastern Michigan game I seen alot of Freshman making plays. The Smith twins look incredible for there second year playing college football. Boley looks great for a freshman. Patterson looks great as a freshman and so does Rodriguez. Gilmore played in 5 games last year missing his redshirt by 1 game. I heard this is some of the reason he left Kentucky for Nebraska. Stoops basically threw a year down the drain for the kid. He had a broken collarbone and should have only played in 4 games last year being that he was a reclassified freshman who should have been a senior in high school last year. I didn't understand this is as well. Maybe he was trying to get him as ready as possible for this year who knows but it was a stupid call.
Like I've said countless times if we can keep the 2024 class together and keep most of tbe freshman class from 2025 as well we will be great starting maybe next year. I hope Tulane beats Ole Miss if they do with far less superior players than even Kentucky. We all know who should be our coach. We all want Sumrall. His record speaks for itself. That's another thing about Stoops you can't really measure his success at Kentucky because this is the only place he's ever coached. They need to make some sort of contract agreement at the end of the year. So both sides come out on top. Stoops will coach here as long as the seats at Kroger field are filled up and as long as he basically wants to be here he will be. If Barnhart would have gave him a regular extension he would have only a year or 2 left on the contract. But no he gave him a 10 year contract and that's the worst thing you can do during the transfer portal era. Every team is going to have a lot of turnovers. If your not winning then you probably wont even keep half of your team. If the reset is major every year you are going to have problems. The last couple of years we've had more players hit the portal than any other team in the SEC. The 2022 and 2023 recruiting classes are gone. There is only like 6 guys back off these 2 classes that has destroyed our culture. Because you basically dont have a culture if your starting almost brand new every year. Ole Miss is a close second on transfers. The difference is Kiffin is a much better recruiter than Stoops. There really isn't a lot of differences between Kentucky and Ole Miss except recruiting. As you can see they always have a talented QB. Having a great QB is almost half the battle. With a great QB you don't have to have a great defense. Because the QB like Pavia for Vanderbilt will do whatever they can to score points. Honestly I think Vanderbilts QB is the best QB in the SEC. Him alone has changed the program. He will use his body his arm whatever he has to do to move the chains. He's the definition of winner. Vanderbilt went to a bowl last year and they look much improved. It used to be guys transferring from Vanderbilt to Kentucky like Ray Davis. Because Kentucky football was still in there winning years when Ray Davis was here. It won surprise me if we lose some players to Vanderbilt Clark Lea is a hell of a coach. Much better than Stoops. Vanderbilt is harder to coach then Kentucky because the prestige of Vanderbilt is much higher than Kentucky. You have to be a little smart to go to Vanderbilt. If Pavia had Kentucky's weapons he would be even better.
It's good to see NCAA has dropped one of transfer period in football. Good move
Comments are closed.