LEXINGTON — J.J. Weaver’s in all probability consuming. 

He’s supposed to absorb someplace within the neighborhood of 4,000 energy a day, and the Kentucky linebacker — who’s engaged on weight achieve — sweats off kilos (plural) day by day at observe. 

So when he finishes, it’s off to the nutritionist for steerage on constructing them again. 

“I’m like 240 (kilos) now,” Weaver stated. “I’m making an attempt to get to 255. If not, I’m good at 245.”

That Weaver’s preseason focus is on including weight is a testomony to how a lot of it he’s taken off his shoulders prior to now two years. 

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He’s nonetheless coping with the lack of his father, killed in a 2020 capturing in Albany, Georgia. However he’s discovering methods to manage. 

And in contrast to this time a yr in the past, Weaver is enjoying unhindered by the uncertainty of a surgically repaired proper knee. Now 20 months faraway from the anterior cruciate ligament tear he suffered in a 2020 sport at Florida, he can assume much less and really feel extra. 

“My knee, I’m wholesome,” Weaver stated. “I’m simply on the market having enjoyable, for actual.” 

A former highschool star at Moore, Weaver performed final season after ACL rehab and had a powerful yr — 34 tackles, 10.5 for loss, 6.5 sacks. However the knee remained on his thoughts. May he plant the way in which he used to? May he lower? Was he the identical participant he was earlier than? 

And past that, he had a heavy coronary heart. 

Weaver’s dad and mom divorced when he was younger, and although he moved to Louisville along with his mom as a 3rd grader, he remained shut along with his father, whose loss of life rocked him. It nonetheless does. 

Soccer was a respite at first, a launch. “My peace,” Weaver stated.

On the sphere Weaver may block out his disappointment and channel his anger. However the knee harm — 5 months after his father’s loss of life — took away all that. 

Weaver already had misplaced “shut associates,” he stated. Then he misplaced his father. Typically it appeared like an excessive amount of. Even now it sticks with him.

“It’s a ache I can’t eliminate,” he stated.

However he wanted to search out methods to handle it. 

Kentucky coach Mark Stoops, who misplaced his personal father at a younger age, prompt speaking by means of his points would possibly assist Weaver, who’s since been open about how remedy aided him. 

He’s turn out to be one thing of a psychological well being advocate, capturing a video this offseason for UK Well being Care to advertise the subject. Although Weaver stated he’s “nonetheless coping with” the lack of his father, he credit his therapist for serving to him to learn the way. 

“Me, I’ll maintain every little thing in and simply go play soccer and simply come house and cry and stuff like that,” Weaver stated within the UK Well being Care video. “However she helped me truly categorical and speak to my teammates. I’m a pacesetter now with my staff due to my therapist. She helped me open up extra and inform my story.”

So did teammate Jordan Wright, a graduate scholar in his sixth yr at UK whom Weaver has identified since they had been children in Florida.

“He’s like a giant brother of mine,” Weaver stated. “So we speak deep. We speak about my father. Jordan actually helped me get by means of my father’s loss of life, as a result of he knew my father personally. And in order that relationship helped me, most undoubtedly.” 

Weaver misplaced his father somewhat greater than two years in the past. It’s pure to not be over it. 

However he’s making progress, emotionally and bodily. 

On the latter entrance, Stoops stated, “you see a giant distinction in him” a yr out from ACL rehab. When Weaver watches movie from final season, he appears to be like at his proper knee and sees “each time I attempted to plant on it, I used to be slipping.” That’s gone now. 

And defensive coordinator Brad White sees “a confidence” in Weaver that was absent final season whilst he made on-field strides. 

“He’s a man that’s very a lot in command of his place proper now, and that’s an important factor to see,” White stated. “As a result of even when he was enjoying at a extremely excessive stage there in 2020 proper earlier than the harm, he didn’t have the command of the place that he has now. So now you place that athleticism along with the command of the place, a spotlight and an understanding of, ‘Hey, this may very well be a giant alternative, a giant yr for me,’ and we’re anticipating massive issues from him.”

Weaver is conscious of the chance. 

He has two seasons of eligibility remaining, however he’s dreamed of the NFL, and Weaver can see it in entrance of him. Perhaps this yr, possibly the subsequent. He is grown to worth the time he spent unable to play soccer, the methods it molded him as a person and a participant.

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“I feel it was like God gave me a battle to combat,” Weaver stated. “After I acquired harm and my dad died, I matured a lot. And I wanted that, I ain’t gonna lie. I actually wanted that. I sat again and discovered soccer, the strategies. Like, I could not play the sport so I began studying the sport.”

And although he’s discovered methods off the sphere to course of the feelings from his father’s loss of life, the sport stays a respite, an essential piece of his remedy. 

“Soccer has actually taken it off my thoughts,” Weaver stated. “It actually takes it off my thoughts, and I play by means of it. That makes me wish to play even higher.”