Kentucky Football Countdown: No. 56 Deondre Buford

Eight Saturdays from now Kentucky football fans will gather at Kroger Field to kick off the 2022 season against Miami, Oh. It’s so close, I can already smell the scent of bourbon and crisp fall air from the orange lot. Wearing No. 56 for the Wildcats is Deondre Buford, who could be the answer to the offense’s greatest question this fall.

About Buford

Deondre Buford was a part of one of the most successful recruiting weekends in school history. He officially visited Lexington with John Young, Beau Allen, Justin Rogers and Dru Phillips in April of 2019. The first dominos to fall, it paved the way for a record-breaking recruiting class.

Buford was a consensus four-star recruit when he picked the Wildcats over Missouri, Pittsburgh, Purdue and Arizona. A 6-foot-3, 295-pound offensive tackle from Detroit’s Martin Luther King High School, he won two Division 2 state championships in his four-year prep career.

Deondre Buford Fun Fact

Buford simply goes by Deon, no relation to this guy:

2022 Forecast

Landon Young was a rock at left tackle for Kentucky. Dare Rosenthal held down the fort for a year. Now Kentucky is in a whole new world. The Wildcats have the most proven quarterback of the Mark Stoops era under center and inexperienced underclassmen tasked to protect his blind side.

Buford will get the first crack at the starting job. David Wohlabaugh is expected to be the rotational reserve at left and right. Five-star freshman Kiyaunta Goodwin will also factor into the equation.

What will Buford bring to the table? We can only guess. Eric Wolford was not a big “sub” guy. Buford’s been on campus for two years and has only played in two games. Like plenty of his counterparts on the defensive line from the class of 2020, there are a lot of tools to like, but very little experience against SEC foes. Fall camp will be competitive. Buford’s capacity to learn on the fly and consistently bring energy and effort will determine the impact he can make on the Big Blue Wall this fall.