Brad White gives impressions of Maxwell Hairston's growth

Following a terrific 2022 football season on the defensive side of the football, Kentucky lost its two starting corners, Keidron Smith and Carrington Valentine — real tough losses in defensive coordinator Brad White’s system. But UK has sustained such departures and still rebounded in the past. In 2019, after losing the superb cornerback trio of Lonnie Johnson, Chris Westry and Derrick Baity, Kentucky had future NFL players Brandin Echols and Cedrick Dort step up to form a solid CB unit.

This spring, White is in the process, once again, of finding replacements for departed stars. Kentucky was able to nab several defensive back transfers over the last couple years to help offset some of last year’s exodus, and they’ll play a huge role, but UK will also need some of its younger pieces to step up. One kid who is improving throughout spring practice, according to White, is sophomore cornerback Maxwell Hairston.

At his press conference this week, Brad White said Hairston’s play in spring camp has been up and down, but he’s shown signs of promise.

“He’s probably had his hands on more balls and had more interceptions than anybody so far in camp, you know,” revealed Coach White. “But then, he also probably has more maybe mental errors.”

After that assessment, White went on to explain what good learning looks like for younger DBs like Hairston as spring practice progresses. Take a look:

“So again, it’s the learning factor and a lot of it is the hot stove, right. You got to be able to know what you can and can’t do. And every day he progresses and then we do a new install and then, all right, we’re going to have mistakes and then we’re gonna have to correct them. But he has done a nice job of learning from those mistakes.

“You know, he’s not a habitual offender in that and that’s the key, right, is…Hey, listen, guys are going to make mistakes and you might even make the same mistake twice. It happens. But I don’t want to see it three, four, five, six times. If that correction has been made, it should be a couple of practices before I see that mistake happen again. I don’t want to see it the very next practice. I mean, if there’s anything you should do, you should harp on the mistakes you had from the last practice. So he’s doing a good job in that regard.”

Lastly, White admitted his defensive system asks a lot of the Kentucky secondary and playing corner for the ‘Cats is a hard job. So, throughout the offseason workouts and practice, White is experimenting and just trying to see what he has to work with this upcoming fall.

“Again, we’re putting a lot on those DBs. I’ve been proud of how they’re trying to handle all the different coverages and checks. There’s a lot to it and it’ll slow down once we get all the installs in.

“But it’s a little bit of a fire hose right now, you know. Just throw it all against the wall, see what sticks and it’s good for for us as coaches too. We’re trying some new things. You always want to have some some new wrinkles and some of it works, some of it doesn’t, some of it you gotta you realize…ah, it may not be as good against this or you have to make sure it’s not always on the kids. It may be on the the scheme itself.”