Justin Rogers ready for "time to shine" on the Kentucky defensive line

One of the most heralded recruits in Kentucky football history is finally ready to show the BBN what all the fuss was about.

Justin Rogers was a five-star recruit in the class of 2020, ranked by Rivals as the No. 16 player in America. A powerful defensive tackle from just outside of Detroit, the somewhat dramatic recruitment ended with a signature, but has yet to produce the same kind of pop on the field. That should change this fall.

“I feel like it’s a rotation, next man up. I feel like it’s my time to shine,” Rogers told KSR recently. “I’m ready to go.”

Rogers Happy to Learn from Vets

Unlike a few other high profile signees from early in the Stoops era, Rogers was not forced into action right away. He had the luxury of learning from two NFL nose guards, Quinton Bohanna and Marquan McCall.

“Coming out of high school I was the guy. Coming here and having to play behind Q and Marquan, it really opened up my eyes. It takes time. It’s different in the SEC. You’ve got dogs out there on the field. Sitting out, not really sitting out, just not playing how I wanted to play, it really helped me out. It really opened up my eyes to see how this game is really played. I learned from different guys,” said Rogers.

“Those guys put in their time here. Now it’s time for me to put in mine and go to work.”

Some five-star players might have been too impatient to wait their turn. Rogers never considered going anywhere else.

“Why would I leave? It doesn’t make sense for me to leave. I got these two NFL guys, great guys in front of me. I just wanted to learn from them. That don’t make sense for me to start all over again and be behind the 8-ball. That don’t make sense.”

Similar Path to McCall

The path to the NFL is not so different for Rogers and McCall. Former teammates at Oak Park High School, the big boys in the trenches were each considered the top player in the state of Michigan at one point throughout their recruitment. Once they got to Kentucky, they had to eat some humble pie. The most difficult part of the learning curve? Consistently performing every single day.

“I had to learn how to strain: running to the ball, all of that. My body’s use to it now. It’s just react, react, react to everything.”

Getting into shape as a nose guard requires much more than running wind sprints and climbing hills. One has to learn how to fight through blocks from big bodies on a regular basis. Some of that requires live reps. McCall got early experience after Bohanna suffered a few nagging injuries. Just like it served as a trial by fire for Bully, Rogers was thrown into the mix in the middle of last season when McCall suffered an injury that kept him out of five games.

“It prepared me a whole lot. Getting the mental reps at practice, then transferring it to the game, it’s easy now,” said Rogers.

Rogers does have an advantage that his predecessors did not: a former top 200 recruit to rotate with at nose guard. Josaih Hayes and Rogers split time to maximize efficiency at nose guard. Neither will ever produce eye-popping stats. However, if they’re playing well, that means the defense is slowing down the run. Kentucky has developed a reputation for producing nasty dudes in the middle of its defensive line. Just because the Cats lost two to the NFL, doesn’t mean that’s ending anytime soon.