Kentucky Prepares Jordan Lovett for Lengthy Jalen Geiger Absence

Kentucky is not optimistic starting safety Jalen Geiger will be available for the foreseeable future. He suffered a left knee injury on an illegal crack-back block in the first half at Florida. Geiger did not appear on the Wildcats’ week three depth chart.

“We will do some more evaluations,” Mark Stoops said Monday. “But again, as I said after the game, it doesn’t look good. It looks like it’s it’s an injury that will keep him out.”

Jalen Geiger, redshirt junior, from Columbia, SC., played in all 13 games in 2021, tallying a pick six at Vanderbilt and recording a crucial tackle for loss in a victory over his hometown team. Last fall he made 18 tackles and two starts, setting the table to emerge into a prominent role in the Kentucky secondary this fall. Things were going according to plan, he had three early tackles in The Swamp, before the illegal block sent Jalen Geiger to the turf at Florida Field.

Next Man Up: Jordan Lovett

In Geiger’s absence, Kentucky called upon Jordan Lovett to fill in at free safety. The North Hardin product did not disappoint his teammates. Lovett had seven tackles, second only J.J. Weaver.

“I saw Jordan really improve and take another step in the right direction,” Stoops said. “It’s just getting reps under his belt, getting confidence, communicating, executing, just being more dialed in and that comes from experience. Playing safety there’s a lot of things that we practice hard, a lot of different shifts, formations, just a lot of things. But things change and things change in a hurry. The practice field, reps and experience helps.”

Jordan Lovett made strides throughout spring practice. The redshirt freshman received a significant amount of praise throughout the ten practices before totaling a team-high nine tackles and two pass break-ups in the Blue-White Game. Redshirt junior Taj Dodson is the next man up behind Lovett at free safety.

Elsewhere on the injury front, running back JuTahn McClain remains “week to week” following a week one injury against Miami (OH).