Roster Rundown: No. 44 Jamin Davis

Jamin Davis played a big role on Kentucky's defense in the second half of last year but he's going to have a much bigger part to play on the Wildcats' 2020 defense.

Number 44 is next up in Cats Illustrated's Roster Rundown series.

Background: Davis was a part of Kentucky's 2017 signing class as a three-star (5.5 Rivals Rating) prospect from Long County in Ludowici, Ga. S

Some of his other offers were from Georgia Tech, Louisville, NC State, and Purdue.

His recruitment lacked drama. Davis verbally committed to Kentucky in the spring semester of his junior year of high school and remained solid for nearly a full year until he signed with Kentucky in February of '17.

Davis was recruited as an inside/outside linebacker capable of playing a number of spots at that level of the defense. He enrolled a semester early at Kentucky.

He redshirted as a true freshman and came up slowly through the ranks before bursting onto the scene in the second half of last season. In the latter part of the year is when he had almost all of his production, finishing the season with 32 tackles.

2020 Outlook: With Chris Oats' medical issues arising this offseason Davis will by necessity play a much bigger role for the whole season than he did last year. Along with DeAndre Square he is one of only two proven and experienced inside linebackers on the roster.

The smart bet is that Davis will see the great majority of his time at MIKE since Square is more of a WILL. However, Davis could certainly see time at WILL if called upon.

Davis will probably need to play a lot of snaps each game and on the season and staying healthy will be important. He should be one of Kentucky's leading tacklers each of the next two years as a redshirt junior and then a redshirt senior.