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Football begins and ends with the hog mollies up front and it’s no different for the Kentucky Wildcats.
Anchoring an impressive defensive line is nose guard Quinton Bohanna. The junior will look to stay healthy and create havoc in the backfield all season long in 2019. When he’s been able to stay on the field, the big man has been dominant.
Quinton Bohanna
- Position: Nose Guard
- Class: Junior
- Measurements: 6-4, 361 pounds
- Hometown: Cordova, Tennessee
- School: Cordova High School
- Recruit Rankings: No. 1,058 nationally, No. 69 DT via 247 Sports Composite
The former 3-star recruit came into Kentucky as a question mark, but he filled a void in one of the hardest positions to recruit. He held offers from the Louisville Cardinals, Cincinnati Bearcats, and Ole Miss Rebels.
In his freshman season, Bohanna played in 12 of 13 games, starting the last five at nose guard and totaling 14 tackles, as well as one PBU. It wasn’t much to write home about, but the Cats were high on him internally going into his sophomore campaign.
Bohanna battled an ankle injury throughout the season, but he still flashed an impressive skill set. While starting in seven of 12 games played, including the final six, he finished with 17 tackles, one sack, four TFL, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery.
The 6-4, 360-pound beast has yet to put up gaudy statistics, or receive preseason hype from the media. However, I have a feeling Bohanna is in for a huge season in 2019. It might not show up in the stat sheet, but he will constantly be causing havoc in the backfield.
Kentucky will also need to get more from its defensive line this season to help account for the losses of Josh Allen and Jordan Jones at linebacker. Those two accounted for a lot of tackles that the defensive line has to help account for in 2019.
Bohanna clogging the middle and disrupting the offense can make life a lot easier on a defense that also has to replace its entire secondary. He’s certainly got the potential to become that rock in the middle that opposing offenses have to game plan around.
During spring football, defensive line coach Derrick LeBlanc had some high praise for Bohanna and how important he is to Kentucky.
“He’s the single most important part of our style of defense, the nose,” said LeBlanc. “If that guy can demand double teams and then get really good and beat those double teams, what can you do with him? ...
“He can almost be a player coach. He knows the defense. He darn near knows the offense. He knows the calls, what blocks he’s gonna get, he knows backfield sets. He’s a really smart football player, and he’s 6-5, 350. So you put those two things together, you make for a pretty dominant player..”
It’s important for the Cats that their starting nose guard is able to stay healthy this season. The potential is there and the coaching staff is excited for him. Now, it’s time to prove it on the field.