UK defensive end Bud Dupree everybody's 'freak' athlete

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Mark Stoops tried to come up with a better word for Bud Dupree, the University of Kentucky's star defensive end who runs and jumps like someone much lighter and hits with the force of someone significantly heavier.

"I don't want to use the term that everybody uses — 'freak' — but athletically, he does things very easy," the Wildcats' head coach said this spring. "He works his tail off, but he's blessed."

Turns out, there just might not be a better way to describe Dupree, the senior who already has amassed 173 career tackles, 24 ½ of them for loss, including 16 sacks. His name keeps popping up in national publications this summer, and all of them seem to invoke that word: Freak.

Bruce Feldman's annual list of the top "freaks" in college football had Dupree fifth, as did NFL.com's ranking of the 14 "most freakish athletes" in the sport. In naming Dupree the No. 4 defensive end in the Southeastern Conference, 247Sports also called him a "freakish athlete."

There are plenty of numbers to support that somewhat subjective label. Never mind that he led Kentucky in sacks (7) and tackles for loss (9 ½) and led all SEC linemen in total tackles (61) last season. He has some stats that simply are not normal.

Erik Korem, UK's High Performance coach, told The Courier-Journal that the 6-foot-4, 267-pound Dupree has a 40 ½-inch vertical leap, 10-6 broad jump, can squat 550 pounds and has been clocked by the Cats' GPS tracking system running 21.6 miles per hour in full pads during a game. Usain Bolt's world-record 100-meter time works out to 23.35 miles per hour.

Dupree's vertical would've ranked No. 1 among defensive linemen in each of the last three NFL Scouting Combines and would've ranked second this year among receivers and cornerbacks. His broad jump would've been the best or second-best among defensive linemen at each of the last eight combines and was better than 2014 No. 1 overall pick Jadeveon Clowney.

No wonder Feldman called Dupree "one of the best things about Wildcat football."

Dupree, a former three-star recruit from Irwinton, Ga., said he runs the 40-yard dash in the high 4.4s or low 4.5s, which would have made him the fastest lineman at any of the last three combines. Teammates used to line up to challenge him in a foot race.

"Then I started to beat them," Dupree said, "and the list started getting smaller."

This spring he dusted former UK quarterback Jalen Whitlow, a speedster who rushed for 663 yards in two seasons before transferring because he was asked to move to wide receiver. Dupree's speed defies his size, which has increased dramatically the last three years.

He was 38 pounds lighter — and a tight end — when he came to the Cats in 2011. He'd caught 10 touchdown passes to go with 10 sacks as a high school senior. He also led his basketball team to a state title that year. But he's all football and all defense these days. He writes the word "savage" on his wrist tape before every practice.

Dupree might consider adding "freak" to the other arm.

Kentucky defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot said Dupree "fits the same mold" as another of his former pupils, Bjoern Werner, an All-America end at Florida State and recent first-round draft pick. NFLDraftScout.com ranks Dupree the No. 6 end available for the 2015 draft. He's one of 15 SEC players on the preseason Chuck Bednarik Award watch list for the nation's top defensive player.

"I think Bud can do anything," Eliot said. "Bud is not only a great player but he's a great person, and he's an extremely hard worker who does things right almost all the time — if not all the time. He leads by example, and with that people follow him. What he says, people listen to.

"He's got every tool to be a great leader and I expect him to be this year."

So there's at least one more way to describe Dupree.

Kyle Tucker can be reached at (502) 582-4361. Follow him on Twitter @KyleTucker_CJ.