Brad White on D-Line, Secondary, Blue-White Game, and More

Thursdays are the defense’s day to stay after Kentucky football practice for media obligations and today defensive coordinator Brad White brought one defensive coach and one defensive player to help him out. Joining White at the podium in the facility’s lobby were defensive line coach Anwar Stewart and sophomore defensive back Jalen Geiger to answer questions from the press. You can see videos of those conversations here.

But here on this internet story from the morning, we’ll focus on Brad White’s comments about two position groups with holes to plug and what he expects from this Saturday’s Blue-White Game.

Defensive Line

Showing flashes at DE

Tre’vonn Rybka is the projected starter at Josh Paschal’s old spot. Behind Rybka, White sees potential among the backups. He told Josh Moore of the Herald-Leader, “They’re all getting there, Tre’Vonn included. They’re all showing flashes of what they can be. But again, it comes back to the consistency piece. That’s what made Josh Paschal so good. That’s what made Yusuf Corker so good. That’s what makes all these guys that we talk about–it’s not just the physical tools and their playmaking ability, it was that they were able to do it down in and out.

“What we’re looking for is consistency. You get that from the older (guys). You get consistent play from guys like DeAndre Square and what we’re hunting now is finding the guys that can also play consistent.”

Disappointing practice

White sounded frustrated in the younger, inconsistent guys after today’s practice. He admitted, “We had moments today that I did not feel that, especially with the younger guys. Is it a growing process? Absolutely. But that’s no excuse. They understand we have a standard here and we can’t just keep putting it and saying the starters are good and the backups, the guys that will eventually be starters, at some point in this season we’ll probably have to start some games, they need to develop that level of consistency.”

Defensive tackle pass rush

A follow-up question to the defensive line question, how about the pass rush from the tackles?

White replied, “Again, it’s been flashes of all of them. Khalil (Saunders) has his days and Josaih (Hayes) has been a nice surprise, done a really nice job from the nose guard position, making a lot of plays, showing some twitch, converting.”

One more, White believes Darrion Henry-Young is best fit for the edge where he’s more comfortable than he is inside.

“But they’ve all flashed at moments,” White said.

Secondary

Andru Phillips

Andru Phillips is currently expected to move into a starting role this fall opposite of Carrington Valentine on the corners. The projected CB2 as things stand now, Phillips still has a ways to go as he makes up for lost time last season, his sophomore season, while dealing with the fraternity party incident of which Phillips was cleared of any wrongdoing. Still, he fell behind during his unexpected time away from the field.

When Brad White was asked about the progression of his corners, White named Phillips as the player covering a lot of ground this spring.

“I think they’ve taken strides, starting with Andru (Phillips),” said White. “I think Andru has made some really competitive plays on the ball. We’ve talked about Andru a little bit, you know, through spring; that added weight, you know, he’s playing stronger and firmer.”

Far from a finished project, though, White pointed to areas where Phillips still has room to improve.

“Like today, there was a mistake and it was just because he was being so physical,” White said before rattling off cornerback speak about adjusting to routes. “There are just some technical aspect things that you got to clean up and a lot of them come with reps. You can talk about it on the board but you need to see it in front of you, you need the full-speed look, so you can’t get enough.”

Speaking to overall team development, not specifically to Phillips, White added, “Some of the mistakes get you frustrated as a coach, but that’s part of it. Sometimes you want them to be further along than they are. And that’s part of pushing them.”

Midyear Enrollees

Andre Stewart and Elijah Reed are two newcomers in Kentucky’s secondary this spring, a couple of midyear enrollees who should still be in high school. Any chance they’re in the mix?

White replied, “It’s hard to be a mid-year DB so they’re both very much a work in progress. There’s a lot going on and, when you’re thinking, you play slower. The only thing you can’t do is play slow when you’re in the secondary, so that ends up being a tough combination at times. They’ll get it but that’s a work in progress.”

But for where they are in their very young college careers, Stewart and Reed are doing just fine in their headstart on the incoming class.

Scrimmage expectations

Looking back at last Saturday’s live scrimmage behind closed Kroger Field doors, White relayed his overall thoughts, saying, “We made some good plays, created some negative-yardage plays. I thought some of the pass-rush stuff was good, some guys individually played well.”

He didn’t love Kentucky’s defense giving up a few “explosives” to the offense, though. “That’s something that we take pride in, that we’ve limited teams to, so we’ve got to do a better job there and continue to clean those mistakes up.”

This Saturday in the Blue-White Game, consistency and cutting out those “explosives” are high on the priority list.

And if I were one of those young players who didn’t have a great Thursday practice, I’d get dialed in real quick before Saturday’s spring dress rehearsal at Kroger Field.

Hear more from Brad White.