Kentucky's Trevin Wallace shined at Missouri in his second career start

DrewFranklinKSR

Kentucky‘s defense played exceptionally well in the Wildcats’ win at Mizzou on Saturday, holding the Tigers to only 17 points scored and 3.9 yards per play. The defense was led in tackles by Trevin Wallace, a second-year linebacker in for the injured DeAndre Square who missed his first start since the 2020 season. Wallace was pivotal in keeping Missouri off the board and earning Kentucky’s seventh win in the last eight meetings in the SEC East rivalry.

After the game, both Mark Stoops and Brad White raved about Wallace’s play in his second career start in the middle of Kentucky’s defense.

“Really pleased with how he played,” said White in his postgame remarks. “I thought he was locked in all week at practice. He was excited for this opportunity and he obviously took advantage of it. He was really good on the sideline. Same thing with D’Eyrk (Jackson), those guys.”

Jackson started in place of Kentucky’s other injured veteran linebacker, Jaquez Jones.

“Obviously, you can tell how much they’ve soaked in from those two older guys. It was awesome to see those two older guys, those two older inside linebackers, every time they came off the field, they were encouraging them, they were talking about them, they were making sure they understood everything. It’s fun to watch, it’s sort of that older brother, younger brother effect and they pull just as hard for when those guys are on the field as when they’re on the field. It was good.”

When Mark Stoops looked back on the win, he admitted he wasn’t worried about how Wallace would play in place of Square. He has seen enough of Wallace in practice and in Wallace’s 20 game appearances to know not to be overly concerned about the second-time starter.

“I knew all along,” he said of Wallace’s big day with a team-high nine tackles. “I didn’t blink an eye with Trevin in there. I knew for sure he would play well because he is a really good football player.”

Wallace needed a pep talk from DeAndre Square

Stoops may not have worried about Trevin Wallace, but Wallace admitted to early-game butterflies. The sophomore was feeling the pressure of standing in for a team captain and it wasn’t until Square pulled him aside for a sideline conversation that he was able to shake the jitters.

Wallace said in his postgame interview, “I had butterflies in my stomach when I first started playing but Square came and talked to me and said, ‘It’s your game. You want this position, you go and take it. Go out there and play ball.’ And that’s what I did.”

Sharing the field with Jackson, another backup linebacker in similar shoes, helped Wallace get settled in, too.

“It was real fun,” he said of playing beside Jackson. “D’Eyrk is my best friend so we were out there having fun and sometimes I’d look at him and start laughing, saying, bro this is what we wanted. So it was real fun.”