By LARRY VAUGHT
Dennious Jackson might be a 6-5, 335-pound junior college defensive lineman now headed to the University of Kentucky to play but he didn’t grow up dreaming of being a college football player.
He admits he was more about academics in large part because his mother always put a book in his hands.
“I was reading when I was 3 or 4 years old. I would grab old textbooks that belonged to my aunts and uncles. I was a bookworm, kind of a nerd,” the recent UK commit said.
He remembers begging for a telescope at Christmas and had his own microscope at a young age.
“I loved telescopes and constellations. I can still point out constellations and identify them. It was just one of my things,” Jackson said.
Jackson is from a “big sports family” but he thought he would be a basketball player.
“I was a lanky, skinny kid. I grew up a Dwayne Wade and Miami Heat fan. That got me into sports in general,” Jackson said. “I was actually working at a jazz festival in California and met him. He was very human with me. He talked with me for like five minutes. I showed him clips (of him playing football) and he actually told me to keep on my path and I would be great. I needed that coming from him to make me believe even more in myself.”
Jackson went to Contra Costa (Junior) College in California after his prep career in Georgia and admits he had a “poor outlook on his future” at the time.
“My (high school) coach told me he knew a guy there who had some SEC knowledge and experience out there. He got on the phone with him. He understood me as a player and what my goals were. He knew I would be in good hands and what was best for my career,” Jackson said.
At age 12 going into middle school, he was 6-foot tall. At age 14, he was 6-2, 230. He didn’t hit above 260 until his junior year but then blew up.
“I went from 6-2, 265 to 6-5, 325 for my senior season. It was no lazy weight. It was a really heavy workout we did and I just got bigger, stronger and faster,” Jackson said. “Now I am definitely a power rusher. I like to think of myself as a run stuffer. I like to bring the energy all I can. I know (UK defensive line) coach (Anwar) Stewart will help me get the skills to get to the quarterback, too.”
He watched Kentucky football games on ESPN and the SEC Network when he was in middle school and high school and remembers the 2018 and 2021 teams were “really good” when they each won 10 games.
He got hooked on football originally after seeing the Seattle Seahawks play and liked how Kam Chancellor would deliver big-time hits. He said he watched so often that he could name the entire Seattle defense.
“I was a defensive guy after that. I loved shutting down offensive players,” he said. “I take pride in that. I want to be a run stopper and more at Kentucky. If you do not remember me by the end of the season, I didn’t do my job. I want opposing players and also fans to remember who I am.”
LaMont Butler was a two-time Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year so it was no surprise when Kentucky teammate Otega Oweh said the toughest team to score against in summer practices has been Butler.
Butler could be one of the best defensive guards in the country. He averaged 1.4 steals per game in 131 games at San Diego State the previous four years.
“His instincts are crazy, and his lateral movements are very good,” Oweh said. “He’s a strong guard. Lamont is a great defender. Great point guard, too. He brings everything to the game. So I’m really excited to play with him. And then on top of that, we go at it in practice.”
Another spirited practice battle has been at center between Amari Williams, a three-time Coastal Athletic Association Defensive Player of the Year at Drexel, and Brandon Garrison, an Oklahoma State transfer and former McDonald’s All-American.
Wake Forest transfer Andrew Carr said the 6-10, 245-pound Garrison had been “super physical” in practice.
“He’s made a really concerted effort to keep his super high motor all the time in practice and give it his all. And it’s been really apparent,” Carr said.
Kentucky’s football recruiting seems on pace to potentially have its highest ranked recruiting class ever and certainly had more verbal commitments in mid-July than even coach Mark Stoops and recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow have been able to gather before.
Not only does Kentucky have 17 commitments, but it has four four-star players in the latest On3 top 300 player rankings — Ohio running back Marquise Davis (64), Frankfort defensive lineman Javeon Campbell (136), Ohio edge rusher Cedric Works (178) and Paducah safety Martels Carter (282). Four-star receiver Quinton Simmons of Ohio is also a four-star recruit but is not in the top 300.
Kentucky’s class is currently ranked 20th nationally by On3 and could get a boost this week if Louisville offensive lineman Isaac Sowells Jr. picks the Cats over North Carolina State.
UK’s class is ranked 19th by 247Sports with Works 86th nationally and the No. 11 overall edge rusher. Campbell is 109th and the No. 15 overall defensive lineman. Simmons is No. 161 and the 16th best receiver in the rankings while Carter is 223rd overall and the 19th best safety.
Kentucky Radio Network basketball analyst Jack Givens saw a “whole bunch of men as opposed to the 18-year-olds we’ve seen coming in” when he went to his first UK basketball practice with new coach Mark Pope.
Givens joined Tom Leach on The Leach Report recently and the former UK All-American admitted he was excited with the experience Pope has on his team.
“The guys that are big and strong and know how to use it, they’re quick and don’t waste any motion, they know what needs to be done. I noticed that very quickly about this team — and that’s a good thing,” Givens told Leach.
He liked the way the older players talked a lot even in practice.
“That’s going to be a good thing,” Givens said. “I saw a lot of really, really good players, but I haven’t yet seen a really good team. There’s a difference. It’s going to take some time.
“Everybody right now is in that trying to be nice stage, and teams go through it. They want to pass the ball, want to get the ball to this guy and that guy, want to make sure everybody is involved.”
Givens said Pope’s offense is built around getting the ball to midcourt in three seconds and if you have an open shot, shoot it.
“That keeps the defense from having time to get set up. You can’t zone this team when the offense is really working,” Givens said.
Trying to make sure he keeps players on his team from leaving and monitoring the transfer portal for new additions has not left much free time for Kentucky baseball coach Nick Mingione since his team’s historic run to the College World Series. That’s why he enjoyed going to Champions at Keene Trace last week with his son, Reeves, to watch his friend Josh Teater play in the ISCO Championship.
“I have to head to the field now to meet a recruit but it was awesome to spend time with my son and just talk to other folks about our season and the impact our team had on them,” Mingione said. “I met a gentleman who just said, ‘Coach, I just want to thank you. I brought my son to Omaha and my dad to Omaha.’ He said we had three generations and he’s like it was the greatest time.
“So if I’ve heard a story like that one time, I’ve probably heard it 100 times. Just to know we were able to provide a lot of people with that experience is great. But to come out here for three or four hours and just walk around and be free to take some calls when we were in the shade off to the side when Josh was getting ready to make a birdie putt was really good.”
Mingione said he’s had very little time to reflect on what his team did to share the Southeastern Conference regular-season title, host and win a regional and super regional, and then play in Omaha.
“We literally got home on that Wednesday. The next morning we meet with the team to go right into player meetings and into the transfer portal. Right into recruiting your current team,” Mingione said. “It hasn’t stopped yet but hopefully here in a couple of weeks it’ll slow down and I’ll get a chance to just get away for a couple of days.”
La Familia coach Tyler Ulis believes that Willie Cauley-Stein, a consensus First-Team All-American and the SEC Defensive Player of the Year in 2015, is going to use The Basketball Tournament (TBT) to hopefully jump start his professional career again.
“That’s definitely what we’ve said. That’s just added pressure, though. I think it’s a great platform to do your thing,” Cauley-Stein said. “Whatever comes from it, comes from it. But really just going out there and playing hard and kind of showing that I’m only 30. There’s still a lot of games left and hopefully some comes out.”
La Familia, UK’s alumni team playing for the $1 million first-place purse, opens tourney play Friday night in Rupp Arena.
Cauley-Stein played in 105 games in three years at Kentucky under coach John Calipari and was sensational his junior year in 2014-15 when he averaged 8.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.7 blocks, 1.2 steals and 1.0 assists per game while shooting 57 percent from the field. He was the sixth pick in the 2015 NBA draft after helping UK go 38-0 before losing to Wisconsin in the Final Four.
He played in 422 NBA games in seven seasons averaging 8.7 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game before playing overseas, including last season in Varese, Italy.
Cauley-Stein had been weighing options to return overseas or play in Puerto Rico before getting this opportunity to showcase what he can still do.
“Keep something going. You don’t want to stop playing for too long. I know that for sure, especially if you’re trying to keep it going when you get to stopping a little too long,” Cauley-Stein said. “It doesn’t matter how young or old it is.”
Cauley-Stein believes if a professional team sees a player has not been playing, it just moves on to the “next guy, next wave” rather than giving the older player another chance.
You just gotta kind of stay busy and stay ready. I’ve easily had opportunities where I wasn’t ready. It’s just about staying ready at this point, learning from that and let the chips fall where they fall,” the former Wildcat said.
Quote of the Week: “I want to not like Mark, but it’s hard not to because he’s a really good dude. He came up to me and introduced himself. We started talking and I walked away like — Louisville fans might not want me to say this, so I apologize — ‘That’s a really good dude,’” Louisville coach Pat Kelsey to Andy Katz of NCAA.com.
Quote of the Week 2: “I don’t know how these teams are going to try to defend us all game long. Especially the way Coach wants to play — so fast. It’s going to be tough for these teams to try and keep up with us,” Fairleigh Dickinson transfer Ansley Almonor on coach Mark Pope’s offense.
Quote of the Week 3: “He is the only guy I have been up close to and I have learned from. Coach Cal, I believe, is the greatest coach in history. I have the best mentor next to me,” former UK SEC Player of the Year Tyler Ulis on why he is joining John Calipari’s staff at Arkansas.