Going into his junior year at Kentucky, former three-star tight end prospect Alvin “Bud” Dupree was finding his own as a converted pass-rusher in Lexington. Despite coming off a 91-tackle, 12.5-tackle for loss, 6.5-sack year in 2012, though, the 2-10 Kentucky football team was looking for a change of scenery at the head coaching position in a crucial year for Dupree.
Kentucky opted to replace Joker Phillips with Mark Stoops, a defensive guru out of Florida State, who had turned that unit into a perennial powerhouse in Tallahassee. Taking over a depleted roster, Stoops desperately needed a star talent to give fans a rooting interest during the start of a difficult rebuild, while Dupree needed a platform to boost his NFL stock during his final years of eligibility.