The Georgia Bulldogs will be facing a pair of familiar faces on Saturday night against the Kentucky Wildcats. Former Georgia quarterback Brock Vandagriff and linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson both transferred from Georgia to Kentucky in the offseason.
Vandagriff and Dumas-Johnson both hold significant roles for the Wildcats. Vandagriff is Kentucky’s starting quarterback and Dumas-Johnson starts at middle linebacker.
The duo is recent experienced a new feeling. Both Vandagriff, a junior, and Dumas-Johnson, a senior, suffered the first regular season loss of their respective college football careers in Kentucky’s 31-6 home defeat to South Carolina.
How Vandagriff and Dumas-Johnson respond to defeat may define their careers. Unfortunately, they won’t have an easy task in Week 3 as Kentucky hosts No. 1 Georgia.
Both Vandagriff and Dumas-Johnson have a special place in the hearts of Georgia fans. The duo helped Georgia win back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022. Georgia head coach Kirby Smart notes that because players transfer does not mean that they should be viewed as a failure.
“Not everybody’s looking to transfer early and often,” said Kirby Smart on quarterbacks in the transfer portal. “They all want to play; they don’t all want to transfer.”
Smart notes that it is particularly tough for quarterbacks because most teams just play one quarterback at once.
“I say at the quarterback position, there comes a point in time when if you haven’t played, you’re running out of time to play,” continued Smart. “So, I don’t know what you want a kid to do. Wait out his whole career and not play? He (Brock Vandagriff) did graduate, he became a better player.”
“He certainly feels that he had a great experience at Georgia, and he has two national championship rings,” said Smart on Vandagriff. “So, I think that that’s a positive more than it is any kind of negative.”
Brock Vandagriff has 199 passing yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions through two games. His QBR of 18.4 is ranked No. 127 in the country.
Vandagriff is getting the playing time he was looking for, but he is not performing as well as he’d like. He managed just three completions on 10 attempts for 30 yards and an interception in the Wildcats’ loss to South Carolina. He’ll have to play better to give Kentucky a shot against Georgia.
Dumas-Johnson has six tackles and an interception through two games with Kentucky. Dumas-Johnson says he’s still buddies with his old teammates and comes back to Athens to visit, but that he has not been talking to many of his old UGA teammates this week.
“I ain’t lose in a long time, so definitely didn’t feel good,” said Dumas-Johnson ahead of the Georgia game. “But, you know, you win some, you
lose some… (I’m) not used to losing them.”
