Practice Report: There's Plenty of Room to Improve on Defense

by:Nick Roush09/04/19

@RoushKSR

Right in-between Kentucky's victory over Toledo and the upcoming matchup with Eastern Michigan, defensive coordinator Brad White spoke to the media about his squad. The overwhelming theme: Kentucky's defense has to be better on third down. "I thought we left a lot of plays out there," said White. "When we have an opportunity we have to, have to get off the field." A couple of those could have easily been solved if the Cats completed the sack in the backfield. "We also left several (sacks) on the field. There should have been a couple more in terms of execution. We've gotta get that cleaned up. Two of those sacks would have happened on third down if we executed properly. We can't miss opportunities to one, get off the field, and two to put the quarterback on the ground." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dySxu9-I42c Secondary Responds -- Every person at Kroger Field saw Jamari's Brown's early misstep on the deep ball down the far sideline. White was encouraged to see that one bad play did not keep Brown down for long. "Right after, they tried to run a skinny post in the red zone right there and he had the PBU." Get outta here, big plays -- Steve Clinkscale, the man who coaches the defensive backs, believed his unit did fairly well executing their assignments against Toledo. When they did not, the Rockets took advantage of the opportunity. That can't happen Saturday. "I wanna eliminate the big plays. They had too many big plays in the first half. We can't allow good teams, like we're about to face Eastern Michigan -- they have a really good offense. They have a really sound defense. We can't afford them to get free points or free yards." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2L4YMGb8bs Leadership from the Safeties -- While most fans had their eyes on the cornerbacks, Clinkscale was happy the safeties were there to put them in the right position to make plays, especially Matt Jones' favorite player, Yusuf Corker. "I thought he tackled well," Clinkscale said of Corker. "He started communicating well. He did a good job taking control. He and Jordan Griffin did a good job taking control of the secondary and putting guys where they're supposed to be. I really liked his leadership after the second quarter. I saw it improving as the game went on." Corker spoke KSR about his first game as the starting safety. There's plenty of room to improve, but he's just happy to be living his dreams at Kentucky. "It was everything I hoped and dreamed and a lot more. The crowd was crazy, especially on third down." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B15x4eZ3468 [mobile_ad]

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