Fun Facts About the Kentucky 2024 Recruiting Class
National Signing Day serves as the cornerstone of the future of the Kentucky Football program. It’s a wonderful day to celebrate new roster additions and project how they’ll fit in Lexington. Let’s set aside the seriousness for some silliness.
You know the impact players at various positions. Now enjoy National Signing Day in the most ridiculous manner possible.
A Pop, Chip and a Boogeyman
In the early days of KSR, we created a poll to give DeMarcus Cousins a nickname and ultimately landed on Boogie. No poll is necessary because there’s already one Boogeyman. That nickname belongs to running back Tovani Mizzell, an exceptional pass-catcher that’s recovering from knee surgery he underwent three months ago.
DeaMonte Trayanum is simply known as ‘Chip.’ It’s a nickname he’s had for a long time.”I was given the nickname ‘Blue Chip’ when I was like 8-years-old. Over the years it just shortened down to Chip and I just rolled with it, stuck with it and carried the chip over my shoulder,” he explained this summer.
“Football hasn’t been the journey that I expected it to be, but that’s life in general, so I keep that chip on my shoulder, every play, every snap and every game.”
Linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson is known as “Pop.” His Georgia teammates joked that it’s because he looks like an old man. He actually got the nickname from his mother, who said he laughed every time a ‘Pops’ cereal commercial appeared on the TV screen. A few other notable nicknames:
— Brian Robinson is simply ‘B-Rob’
— Jiquavious Marshall is shortened to ‘Quavo’
— Quaysheed Scott also just goes by ‘Q’
Kentucky got a Rabbit Chaser
The Sunshine State produces pros every year on National Signing Day. Kentucky might have one coming to its wide receiver room. Hardley Gilmore calls Muck City home where every year there’s a rite of passage: chasing rabbits.
Farmers burn sugarcane annually to harvest the crop. It scatters rabbits from the fields where the kids chase them. Santonio Holmes and Fred Taylor are among the dozens of future NFL stars that earned their stripes showing off their speed by outgunning rabbits through the fields. It just so happens that speed is the defining quality of Gilmore’s game, something he’s bringing to the BBN already on the practice fields.
Kentucky Wildcats with Talented Family Ties
Some people are just born with it. Talent runs deep in the families of a couple future Kentucky Wildcats.
Antwan Smith, a three-star linebacker from Atlanta, is not the only athlete in his family to play college sports. Deon Jackson, his older half brother, was a running back at Duke from 2017-20. His mother was a track and field star at Miami, and his father played basketball at Utah State.
Cutter Boley is one of the highest ranked quarterbacks to ever sign with Kentucky. His sister was a more prolific recruit. Erin Boley took Elizabethtown to three straight Sweet 16s and was named Miss Basketball in 2016. Maya Moore surprised her in school to give her the trophy for Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year. She went on to win a conference title at Notre Dame, then transferred to Oregon to help the Ducks reach their first ever Final Four.
Breakfast with B-Rob
Brian Robinson is dedicated to his craft. He shares evidence of that hard work on social media. It’s not limited to workout videos. You get out what you put in and that includes food. His Dad is the chef and he’s cooking up some delightful meals, particularly for breakfast. If you’re hungry, look away.
If you think it’s limited to breakfast, think again. It was no accident that he gained a significant amount of muscle mass from his junior to senior year.
Hide Your Geese from Hayes Johnson
Before he became the first commitment in the Kentucky 2024 recruiting class, Hayes Johnson was recruiting KSR listeners to find Canada Geese. An avid outdoorsman, the Taylor County native spent his free time taking care of the property pests. Hayes had seemingly pulled a St. Patrick and scared all of the geese out Taylor County, so he called Matt Jones to find more birds. If that wasn’t theatrical enough, watch his shirtless friends celebrate his commitment to the Cats.
The New Kentucky Kicker Hit a 75-Yarder
The ball travels a little farther in the latitude of Montana. It wasn’t in a game, but 75 yards is 75 yards. Sheesh.
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