Mi’Quise Humphrey-Grace has a habit of showing up in the biggest moments, and the Kentucky defensive lineman did it again last Saturday against No. 12 Alabama.
The 6-foot-4, 271-pound lineman put Kentucky ahead 7-0 early with an interception return for a touchdown, an unusual sight even if it was hardly unfamiliar for him. The pick-six was his first at Kentucky, but it was already the third touchdown of his college career.
Humphrey-Grace first found the end zone during the 2023 FCS playoffs, when he scooped up a fumble and took it 56 yards for a score in South Dakota’s win over Sacramento State. He did it again a year later, recovering another fumble and returning it 15 yards for a touchdown against South Dakota State.
“I don’t know,” Humphrey-Grace said with a grin when asked about his unusual talent for finding the end zone after the Alabama game. “I’m a ball hog, I guess.”
That knack for splash plays has been part of his value since transferring from South Dakota to Kentucky before the 2024 season. He handled SEC football immediately, finishing with 31 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks. He also led the Wildcats with six quarterback hurries and added two pass breakups and one forced fumble.
Kentucky had every reason to worry about keeping him. Former UK defensive coordinator Brad White left for Jon Sumrall’s Florida staff, and former UK recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow, who had originally recruited Humphrey-Grace to Kentucky, is now at Louisville. Still, the new staff made its priorities clear.
Soon after Texas A&M’s College Football Playoff loss to Miami, newly hired UK defensive coordinator Jay Bateman, who was splitting time between his old job in College Station and his new one in Lexington, flew to Cincinnati to meet with Humphrey-Grace and cornerback Terhyon Nichols.
“(Humphrey-Grace) has a lot of talent,” defensive line coach Anwar Stewart said. “We’re very happy to have kept him, and we’re expecting huge things from him. He’s got to be one of those guys that has really got to go.
“As he goes, we’re going to go, and we’re expecting huge things from him.”
Against Alabama, he backed up that confidence in a big way. Humphrey-Grace finished with four tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and one sack. He also ended Alabama’s opening drive with the interception and shut down the Crimson Tide’s second possession by stripping quarterback Keelon Russel of the ball at the Kentucky 27-yard line while sacking him.
“Obviously, the fans and the crowd did a phenomenal job of making it difficult for them and giving us that juice,” Humphrey-Grace said. “So, I think we were just hungry, just ready to get out there.”
The performance wasn’t enough to stop Kentucky from fading in the second half, when Alabama rolled off 32 unanswered points and benefited from a string of drives that began on Kentucky’s side of the field. Even so, Humphrey-Grace’s sequence near the Alabama goal line - tipping Russell’s pass into the air, tracking it down, and then slipping past Russell’s diving stop before falling into the end zone - was the kind of play that sticks.
That’s part of why coaches spent the offseason talking up Bateman’s more aggressive defense and how it could unlock even more from Humphrey-Grace, whom coach Will Stein has repeatedly described as a future NFL draft pick.
“He’s a player,” Stein said. “That was awesome.
That pick-six is one of the coolest moments I’ve ever been a part of. I mean, to see our stands go crazy like that, see the passion from our team, and just an unbelievable play.
Unbelievable play. That one will be in the history books for sure.”
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Kentucky Fans Have More Than One Reason To Watch Week 3
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There is also the added wrinkle of familiar faces turning up in new places, which gives the weekend a Kentucky flavor even when the Wildcats are not on screen. Jon Sumrall is now steering Florida, and Cutter Boley has landed at Arizona State, giving fans another program to follow closely as the early-season picture starts to sharpen. For Kentucky, it is the sort of week where the results elsewhere can matter almost as much as the one on its own field. [Read more 🡒]