Roster Rundown: No. 56 D'Eryk Jackson

Cats Illustrated's Roster Rundown series continues with a look at D'Eryk Jackson, a true freshman inside linebacker from Dexter (Ga.) West Laurens who will share No. 56 with fellow freshman Deondre Buford.

Background: Jackson was a summer commitment for Kentucky and the story of how he came to end up with the Wildcats was intriguing.

Kentucky had plenty of options at inside linebacker but his desire and drive to land with the 'Cats won the coaches over. He drove to Lexington, slept in the parking lot for a couple of hours, and turned in a strong camp performance, committing shortly thereafter.

Jackson had nearly 230 tackles over his final two years of high school and the Atlanta-Journal Constitution named him the region's Defensive Player of the Year following the 2019 football season.

Jackson had an injury and went through some rehabilitation early in the offseason but our understanding is he seems to be in a good place to factor into fall camp starting this week.

He was recruited to fill the "thumper" role as a run stuffer in the middle of Kentucky's defense, a similar player to Kash Daniel in that respect.

2020 Outlook: Kentucky redshirted all of its true freshmen from the 2019 recruiting class and returns DeAndre Square and Jamin Davis to start at the two inside linebacker positions in its 3-4 base defensive scheme. Given that and the fact that Kentucky will hit the ground running against a 10-game all-SEC schedule, it might be tempting to assume that Jackson is a near lock to redshirt.

However, there's an outside chance he could work his way into some snaps because of the lack of proven depth on the inside. Marquez Bembry and Jared Casey have been in the program longer so they would be the obvious leading candidates for the second unit positions but fall camp will determine a lot.