Better tackling, limiting explosives focus for UK defense in Week 3

Kentucky’s defense has been a bright spot for the Wildcats through the first two weeks of the season, but Brad White says there is still plenty of room for growth leading up to this week’s game against Eastern Michigan.

The UK defensive coordinator praised the Cats for their effort last week in a 30-23 loss to high-powered Ole Miss while pointing out the performance could have been even better with more attention to detail.

“It was a good start,” White said. “We started fast, obviously, two interceptions, and having an opportunity there on that 4th-and-1 to really, sort of, change the momentum. The momentum was in our favor, and we could have kept it going.”

Down 10-0 after a pair of Ty Bryant interceptions helped stake the Cats to an early lead, Ole Miss elected to go for a 4th-and-1 situation from its own 44-yard line early in the second quarter.

With a stop, UK may have built on its lead. Instead, the Rebels surprised the defense with a 55-yard pass that set up a 1-yard touchdown run.

“It’s a really good learning moment for our guys,” White said. “… What you can’t give up is an explosive (play). And, to me, that was the turning point moment.

“The thing that we need to be better at is we need to be more situationally aware. We need to understand, again, whether it’s 4th-and-1, if they get a yard or two there, it’s not the game-changing play; giving up the explosive there is.”

Understanding down-and-distance and time-and-score situations is a big focus moving forward. With more SEC games just around the corner, White says it needs to become second-nature.

“We’re still growing,” he said. “We still have a lot of guys who are just trying to do their job and execute our defense, but it’s at the point where that needs to become like breathing. Now they can focus on the opponent and what they’re trying (to do) in the situation.”

After the big momentum play, Ole Miss went on to score 20 of the next 23 points and forced a struggling UK offense to play from behind. Many of those scores were aided by the Cats’ tackling issues on the perimeter.

“We need to play stronger and leverage the football better on the perimeter and make sure we’re going to secure those,” White said. “Hitches are going to happen. That’s OK. That’s football. But we need to pin them to the ground for 5-yard gains, 4-yard gains — every once in a while they can get loose for 6, 7, 8 — but to have two explosives passes on hitches and 100 yards on seven hitches in the first half is just unacceptable.”