WATCH: Final Update from Kentucky Defense Before Game Week

The heat couldn’t keep the Kentucky football team off the practice fields at the Joe Craft Football Training Facility. The Wildcats are turning the page from fall camp to Ball State prep and Brad White had one final update ahead of game week.

The Kentucky defensive coordinator is satisfied with the package his unit installed in the month of August. It may not include more wrinkles than previous years, but it will look slightly different this fall.

“I felt like we had a pretty good package last year. I think it’s just, it may be different every year as you sort of adapt to your personnel. So you might look a little different,” said White.

The Kentucky defensive coordinator spent plenty of his time behind the podium discussing Deone Walker. No. 0 can be a special player, but who will be the guys making plays alongside him on the defensive line?

“I don’t think there’s gonna be a set rotation,” White said. “We’re going to just try to keep guys fresh. Especially early in the season when it’s hot and you just got to try to roll fresh bodies. So really, who’s playing the best in the firmest at the moment? That’s who’s gonna be in the game and then we’re gonna just gonna roll from there.”

Octavious Oxendine and Tre’vonn Rybka have logged a lot of reps, but they aren’t the only potential difference-makers. Defensive line coach Anwar Stewart has high hopes for Kahlil Saunders and Jamarius Dinkins.

“We got a lot of depth. Guys worked really hard this summer, this fall camp, and so we’re really excited,” Stewart told KSR. “I like where we are, where we’re going. We’ve built a lot of depth over the fall camp. We’re not there yet, but give us another week.”

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Ten more days till kickoff.

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Maxwell Hairston Ready to Rise Up for Kentucky

Kentucky needed cornerbacks to step up during fall camp. Andru Phillips already had plenty of good tape, but was there anyone else ready to answer the call? Maxwell Hairston proved just that with an outstanding spring. He then followed it up in fall camp.

Brad White and Mark Stoops have targeted big, rangy cornerbacks in the past and Hairston doesn’t necesarrily fit that mold. What he lacks in size, he makes up for in speed (some say he’s the fastest on the team) and tenacity.

“If I’m on an island with just a receiver, it’s either you or me, so I gotta win,” Hairston told KSR. “I just feel like being on the island you gotta have short term memory, you gotta be mentally tough, as well as physical. I just feel like if you got that dog, it don’t even matter.”

Hairston could not survive an offseason of practices if he didn’t have that dog in him. Barion Brown, Dane Key and Co. are bringing it every single day in practice. Even though he’s far from a finished product, Hairston believes the iron has sharpened iron all offseason. Now he just wants to show it on Saturdays.

“I just feel like my IQ, my feel for the game and just like mentally I’ve taken a step above,” said the third-year cornerback. “Going into this season I’m very excited to present what I’ve been working on, go out there and show the world what me and my team has got in store for them.”