Mark Story
Lexington Herald-Leader
As the 2023 Kentucky football season draws near, the conventional wisdom is that quarterback Devin Leary is the Wildcats’ indispensable man.
Should the North Carolina State transfer be sidelined for any reason, the prevailing thought goes, the UK goose will be cooked.
With the obvious stipulation that keeping Leary on the field shapes up as a major key this fall toward achieving success for Mark Stoops and the troops, there is another Wildcat who may be even less replaceable.
It could be that “the other No. 13” besides Leary on the Cats’ 2023 roster — veteran rush end/outside linebacker J.J. Weaver — is Kentucky’s most-essential player.
Behind Leary, Kentucky has two other quarterbacks, Kaiya Sheron and Destin Wade, on its roster who have started a game for the Wildcats. Should the 6-foot-5, 259-pound Weaver go down, UK has no other edge defender with the same combination of physical maturity and prior playing experience upon whom to call.
Because they both wear the No. 13, Weaver says he and Leary have taken to referring to themselves as “the twins.”
Though this will be their first season as teammates, the college careers of Weaver and Leary have already been aligned in one regard: Both have missed significant time in two different seasons due to injuries.
At North Carolina State, Leary was limited to four games in 2020 due to a broken fibula. The QB played only six games last season after suffering a torn pectoral muscle.
As for Weaver, a torn ACL ended his redshirt freshman season after nine games in 2020. Last year, he missed two full games and most of a third after suffering an injury to his left elbow early in the season’s third game vs. Youngstown State.
In both instances, Weaver’s injuries came just as his on-the-field performance seemed headed toward the proverbial “next level.”
So when Weaver decided to eschew a shot at the 2023 NFL Draft and return to UK for his redshirt senior season, the product of Moore High School in Louisville said he did so to prove he could put a fully healthy season of football on video.
“I was really big on coming back and being healthy, having a healthy season,” Weaver says.
To help himself stay on the field this fall, Weaver hit UK’s offseason conditioning program with zeal. He prioritized his diet, emphasizing the consumption of good protein while, he says, eating six meals a day.
The result is that Weaver said he entered Kentucky’s preseason training camp carrying 15 more pounds than his listed playing weight (244) of last season.
“He’s a lot bigger — and that’s made him slightly harder to block,” UK tight end Brenden Bates says of Weaver while using “slightly” to convey the opposite meaning.
Of players in general who have added “good weight,” Kentucky defensive coordinator Brad White says “in a lot of cases, it allows you to play with less injury. You are a little bit less — frail is not the right word — but you’ve got more density to you.”
For UK, the hope is that Weaver’s greater mass will translate into more disruptive production in the pass rush.
As is a major part of Kentucky football lore, ex-Wildcats star Josh Allen famously bulked up before his 17-sack tour de force en route to earning national defensive player of the year honors in 2018.
It is unrealistic to expect that level of production from other players, but UK would benefit substantially if Weaver could, say, triple in 2023 his team-high output of three sacks from 2022.
The hope, White says, is that Weaver’s increased bulk this season “gives you a little bit more push when you go speed to power in the pass rush.”
At the least, White says, Weaver’s new bulk should “allow him to play more snaps.”
Other than Weaver, Kentucky’s top edge defenders seem likely to be sophomore Keaten Wade and redshirt freshman Tyreese Fearbry.
As a true frosh last season, the 6-5, 250-pound Wade played in all 13 games and had 1.5 QB sacks. The 6-5, 233-pound Fearbry passes the “look test” as an edge pass rusher, but had only one tackle and a pass breakup to show for his three appearances in games as a true freshman last season.
While both Keaten Wade and Fearbry seem promising, Weaver is the only edge defender on the 2023 Kentucky roster who will enter the season as a proven commodity.
That’s why, when evaluating the one Kentucky football player the Cats can least afford to lose, the defensive No. 13 may hold the edge over even the hyper-valuable offensive No. 13 who will be taking the snaps from center.
Kentucky football sacks leaders
The players who have led UK in quarterback sacks in each of the past five seasons:
2018: Josh Allen, 17
2019: Calvin Taylor, 8.5
2020: Jamar “Boogie” Watson, 5
2021: J.J. Weaver, 6
2022: J.J. Weaver, 3
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