UK Football: Regarding UK's DL

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Wildcats Thunder Football/Recruiting Ananlyst

This is one of those lingering issues that doesn't come up much unless a rash of injuries hits....in which case it could become a primary factor in the outcome of UK's 2007 season.

Here are the returning scholarship defensive linemen:

DT: Travis Day, Myron Pryor, Ventrell Jenkins, Corey Peters, Ricky Lumpkin

DE: Dominick Lewis, JC Craigman, Nii Adjei Oninku, Jamil Paris, Jeremy Jarmon, Josh Minton

Of course, Jenkins(shoulder) and Minton(ACL tear) are out indefinitely with injury rehabs. Minton will miss UK's 2007 season for sure. Jenkins has a redshirt available, and the staff would like to use it now.

Barring additional injuries, two DL starting jobs are already locked up. Myron Pryor will start at one DT. Jeremy Jarmon will start at one DE. Both have all-SEC ceilings. The other two starting jobs will get worked out in August. In spring drills, Dominick Lewis and Nii Adjei Oninku dueled for the other starting DE role. After a fine month of drills, Oninku emerged from April with a tentative hold on the starting job. But the bigger Lewis (a senior) could still win it in August, since Oninku has a history of playing better in April than August. The other DT job is contested between soph Corey Peters and redshirt freshman Ricky Lumpkin. Lumpkin is going to be a terrific player at UK, but Peters probably starts in September. The other returnees will be needed for situational depth. It will be very interesting to watch the development of lanky DE Jamil Paris as a true soph.

The following UK signees are defensive linemen: Antwane Glenn, Shane McCord, Greg Mesiner, Charles Mustaafa, and DJ Stafford. When these five prospects were signed in February, the staff knew Stafford is the only one physically ready for D-1 play. They tentatively planned to redshirt the other four. Since Stafford is not academically eligible to play in 2007, no help will come this fall from this group unless someone is rushed into service ahead of schedule. If McCord's knee is alright, he might be able to handle such an assignment since he is very strong for his size. But they would rather redshirt him.

Summarizing....Coach Petri will field a very good starting DL, but depth is a big issue....especially if someone gets hurt. It is difficult to foresee immediate help from the true freshmen.

This horse has been kicked 1,000 times, but wouldn't Micah Johnson be a good fit up-front for this defensive unit??