Jamon Dumas-Johnson to Play in East-West Shrine Game
Kentucky senior linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson is set to play in the 100th East-West Shrine Bowl Thursday, Jan. 30 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. It will air at 8 p.m. ET on the NFL Network. He will suit up for the East team coached by Marquice Williams of the Atlanta Falcons. The defensive coordinator is Drew Wilkins of the New England Patriots.
Dumas-Johnson, a 6-foot-1, 245-pound inside linebacker from Hyattsville, Maryland, transferred to Kentucky in 2024 after three seasons at Georgia. He played in 49 career games with 34 starting assignments, including starting in all 11 games played at Kentucky. For his career, he totaled 192 tackles, 24.0 tackles for loss, 13 sacks, six pass breakups, two interceptions, three fumble recoveries, one forced fumble and one quarterback hurry.
In his lone season at UK, he led the Wildcats in total tackles (67) and ranked in the top 25 of the Southeastern Conference in tackles per game (6.09). He added 7.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, and interception and three fumble recoveries, including one for a score. He was named Third Team All-SEC by Phil Steele for his efforts.
Prior to Kentucky, he had started in 24 straight games at Georgia, including all nine in 2023, before suffering a broken left forearm (radius bone) in a win over Missouri. After surgery on Nov. 7, Dumas-Johnson missed the remainder of the season and transferred to Kentucky in January of 2024. He returned to action on March 19, 2024 and was named to the Comeback Player of the Year Watch List in 2024.
Before his injury, he earned a spot on several national watch lists, including the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, the Butkus Award and the Lombardi Award. He also was selected to the Associated Press Preseason All-America First Team and The Sporting News Preseason All-America First Team.
Dumas-Johnson had a fantastic season as a true sophomore at UGA, becoming a finalist for the Butkus Award and being named a First-Team All-American by Sporting News and ESPN.
The East-West Shrine Bowl is the longest running college all-star football game in the nation and Kentucky has had 41 Wildcats accept an invitation since 1954, including 13 under head coach Mark Stoops. In Stoops’ tenure, Dumas-Johnson joins Leary and Robinson (2024), Darrian Miller (2014), Za’Darius Smith (2014), C.J. Johnson (2015), Derrick Baity (2018), C.J. Conrad (2018), “Bunchy” Stallings (2018), Brandin Echols (2020), Landon Young (2020), Marquan McCall (2021), and Luke Fortner (2021).
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