Mi’Quise Humphrey-Grace’s Pick-Six was ‘one of the coolest moments’ of Will Stein’s career

Keeping Mi’Quise Humphrey-Grace and Tavion Gadson on the roster was one of Will Stein and Jay Bateman’s top priorities when they arrived at Kentucky; just a few games into the season, we’re seeing why. Had the second half gone differently, Humphrey-Grace would have been one of the heroes of the game. On Alabama’s first possession, the fifth-year defensive lineman tackled Alabama running back Daniel Hill for a two-yard loss on second down. On the next play, he tipped Keelon Russell’s pass into the air, caught it, and dove into the end zone for a touchdown to put the Cats up 7-0. Kroger Field shook as fans celebrated the pick-six, the program’s first since Maxwell Hairson’s vs. Ohio in 2024 and the first vs. Alabama since 1946. “Those guys are ballers,” Will Stein said of Humphrey-Grace and Gadson on Tuesday. “Ballers. Kees is, that kid, he’s a player now. He’s a player. 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, to see the passion from our team, and just an unbelievable play. Unbelievable. That one will be in the history books for sure.” It was the first pick-six of Humphrey-Grace’s career, but the third touchdown. He recovered two fumbles for touchdowns while at South Dakota. On Alabama’s second possession, he also forced a fumble that was recovered by CJ Works and totaled four tackles, including 1.5 for loss. “I was just matching hands,” Humphrey-Grace said of his pick-six after the game. “It’s a drill we work every day with Coach Stu and Coach Snyder. We work that a lot, so I was just able to do that, get my hands up, and tip it to myself. And obviously, I was about to get a touchdown, so I just stuck the ball out.” Despite the loss, the clip of the crowd celebrating Humphrey-Grace’s touchdown has gone viral, proof of what Kentucky Football could become under Stein. Humphrey-Grace said that fans set the tone for the special play to unfold. “We came out, obviously, the fans and the crowd did a phenomenal job of making it difficult for them and giving us that juice, so I think we were just hungry, just ready to get out there.” Elsewhere on the defensive line, Tavion Gadson also played well, finishing with a career-high five tackles, including a career-high 2.0 tackles for loss, and 1.5 sacks, along with his first career pass breakup. The half sack came when he and Ty Bryant took down Keelon Russell to turn what could have been a game-tying touchdown into a field goal in the second quarter. “Tavion, he played like a grown man,” Stein said. “I was very proud of him. I didn’t feel him as much in the first game of the year for no particular reason, but he showed up. He made some big-time plays and was hard to block.” “He was ready to go,” Humphrey-Grace said of Gadson after the game. “I mean, the D-Line, we felt like last week we didn’t play to like who we were. We didn’t play physical, or we didn’t play relentless enough against the team we played last week. So, we were hungry this week and practiced very hard this week. So I think we were just ready to go. We showed everybody who we are.” Kentucky will need Humphrey-Grace and Gadson at their best to take down No. 9 Texas A&M. The Aggies blanked Missouri State 50-0 in Week 1. They beat Arizona State 48-20 in Week 2, but the Sun Devils hung around, down just four points going into the fourth quarter. From there, Texas A&M scored 24 unanswered points. After Saturday, that probably sounds familiar. “I would just say like, it’s a four-quarter game,” Humphrey-Grace said of his biggest takeaway from the Alabama loss. “You could be up, you could be down. You’ve got to play the whole game. Alabama, they did a great job of doing that. Obviously, they’ve been in those situations before. They were down against Oklahoma last year, and they came back and won in the playoffs. So that’s some situations they’ve been in before, and I think we can learn from this a lot.” Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.