Brad White says Kentucky players needed 'a dose of humility'

Coach Mark Stoops turned some heads earlier this spring when he called his Kentucky players entitled and put them on blast in front of the media following a particularly disappointing spring practice.

It’s unclear how the Wildcats have responded exactly, but defensive coordinator and outside linebackers coach Brad White seemed to agree with Stoops’ approach.

To him, that’s part of developing your team in spring practice.

“It’s good. I don’t know if that was sort of a tongue and cheek type deal, but it was needed and it was a great assessment by coach in terms of understanding something,” White explained. “There’s reality, right? And humility. And those are two really important qualities for guys to understand. Sometimes they live outside of reality and they need a dose of humility.”

It’s perfectly understandable if Kentucky players are a little behind the 8-ball in a few areas this spring.

After all, the Wildcats lost multi-year starter Will Levis at quarterback, a guy many are projecting as a potential first-round NFL Draft pick this spring.

There was naturally going to be some degree of learning curve associated with finding his replacement and getting the offense back up to speed.

But Stoops’ comments don’t appear to have been just about the offensive side of the ball. His comments referenced a more broad sense of entitlement on the team, one that both sides of the football are now working to eradicate this spring.

White discussed some of the ways he’s been trying to coach it out of the Kentucky players on defense.

“It’s been solid this week in terms of effort,” White said. “Lot of things to clean up. Trying to put them in some tough situations with some different calls, I think it’ll help us later. And for them to feel a heavy dose of stress, maybe more than I usually do in spring, even to that first group.”

The goal for White is to put players outside their comfort zone so they realize there are still things they need to work on, areas of their game they need to clean up.

He has naturally put them into some unfavorable positions to see how they react and respond.

“I think it’s good. I think they need to feel it,” White said. “They need to feel getting beat and playing light boxes and doing different things in that regard. Has its ups, has its downs, but that’s spring.”