WKU Football Adds Former Tennessee LB Will Ignont

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – WKU Football signed transfer linebacker Will Ignont, the team announced Thursday afternoon. Ignont – a Huntsville, Ala., native – was previously with the University of Tennessee, where he played in 21 games over the past three seasons.

Ignont held junior athletic status last season for the Volunteers, as he put up 16 tackles over the first three contests of 2019, including a seven-tackle performance vs. Georgia State and a career-best eight-tackle effort vs. BYU. As a sophomore, he played in all 12 games and ranked seventh on Tennessee with 47 total tackles.

With the addition of Ignont, WKU linebackers coach Maurice Crum adds more depth to a linebacker room that brings back starters Kyle Bailey and Clay Davis, as well as reserves Jaden Hunter and Malik Staples. Senior Eli Brown is also expected to work back into the mix after returning from an injury that forced him to miss the 2019 campaign.

Recent linebacker transfers Brown (University of Kentucky), Davis (Tennessee Tech University), Hunter (University of Georgia) and Staples (University of Louisville) have all fit in seamlessly to defensive coordinator Clayton White’s 4-2-5 scheme in recent years. Bailey – who is entering his fourth season on The Hill – led WKU with 109 tackles and three interceptions after making the switch from safety back to linebacker (his high school position) in the offseason.

Ignont was a four-star recruit out of Buckhorn High School. He earned 2015 and 2016 Class 7A All-State First Team accolades, was a 2017 U.S. Army All-American Bowl nominee and participated in the 2016 Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Game. Ignont recorded 131 tackles and 22 TFL’s as a senior in 2016 after totaling 91 tackles with six TFL’s as a junior in 2015.

The Hilltoppers capped their 2019 campaign with a 23-20 thriller over Western Michigan in the SERVPRO First Responder Bowl to improve to 9-4, tripling the team’s win total from 2018 (3-9) while matching the number of victories from the previous two years combined (9-16). WKU’s six-win improvement from 2018 to 2019 tied for the third-best in FBS, behind only Navy (eight) and Central Michigan (seven).

Second-year head coach Tyson Helton and the 2020 Hilltoppers will face a wire-to-wire grind, as nine of the team’s 11 FBS opponents competed in a bowl game in 2019. WKU is expected to return 16 of its 22 offensive and defensive starters, along with two of the Hilltoppers’ three specialists.