Getting healthy was big emphasis in Kentucky’s defensive line rebuild

Kentucky lost 1,641 snaps from the defensive line room off last year’s defense. That left a ton of volume for defensive coordinator Brad White and defensive line coach Anwar Stewart to replace. However, one of the main reasons for UK’s overall clunker in 2024 had to do with the defensive line play. The Cats did not have health or depth on their side last season.

Expected contributors Josaih Hayes and Tavion Gadson were lost with long-term injuries during spring practice. Neither returned to the lineup until the season was a goner. Starters Keeshawn Silver and Deone Walker battled injuries throughout the season. The former appeared on multiple availability reports throughout the year and the latter played through a back fracture. What was set to be a team strength became a liability. That ultimately led to the run defense crumbling in the backend of the season.

Kentucky set out this offseason to rebuild the defensive line room but a top priority was to get healthy at this position. The Cats have accomplished that goal to this point.

“We’re really deep. We’re very fortunate. That’s one thing that Coach (Mark) Stoops and Brad talked about this offseason. Just really building that depth. Getting some healthy bodies in here because like you said, shoot, last spring, man, it was crazy. Two guys that we really depended on went down and then with Deone and Keeshawn not being 100 percent it hurt us,” Stewart explained. “That’s four really big engines that we was expecting to give us a lot. So we didn’t have that depth. That was one thing we did this offseason — we addressed that. We’re healthy. The guys are competing. When you compete, that builds depth, and that’s what we’ve been doing.”

In the offseason, Kentucky added three transfers to the room and returned five scholarship players on the defensive line. David Gusta (Washington State) and Mi’Quise Humphrey-Grace (South Dakota) are expected to be first-year starter. Hayes and Gadson are back healthy and have gone through a full offseason program with the strength and conditioning staff. Kentucky is ahead of where they were last season due to just staying healthy through spring practice and in the summer.

Kentucky is hopeful that leads to better — and more consistent — results in the trenches when the season begins. Stewart says the offseason was “just about getting healthy” in the defensive line room. Now the unit is optimistic that better results will arrive after dealing with heavy injury attrition and top player battling through injuries all of last year.

We’re really excited about what we have,” Stewart said.