Octavious Oxendine (8) and the UK defense have not allowed a score in the last six quarters but defensive coordinator Brad White sees a lot of room for improvement still. (Vicky Graff Photo)
First it was Kentucky coach Mark Stoops letting the offense know “undisciplined” mistakes would no longer be tolerated and that despite UK’s 3-0 start that the offense had to be better.
Now Kentucky defensive coordinator Brad White is making sure his unit is not resting on its laurels. The Cats have not given up a point the last six quarters and UK and Alabama are the only two teams nationally not to have allowed a passing touchdown this season. Kentucky is also among the national leaders in almost every defensive category going into Saturday night’s game with Northern Illinois.
Yet White made it clear after Wednesday’s practice that he was not satisfied with his unit’s play.
“We have got a lot to fix,” the coordinator said. “We are a long way from being great. We have had a couple of solid games but it was one quarter of a season.”
Kentucky has nine more games, including seven against Southeastern Conference competition. White says basically it is like playing one good quarter in a game but still having three more quarters to go to win.
“We have got to correct mistakes we have made over three games,” White said. “Highlight what we have done well and continue to make more of those plays so we can play better.”
He was glad that his backup players secured the shutout last week against Youngstown State. He thought it was good for them to “feel a little bit of pressure on their shoulders” to not let the shutout get away. He said the players knew there was a lot riding on keeping the shutout.
Now White wants UK to cut down on the explosive players (over 30 yards) that the defense has allowed.
“We need to be able to limit those. That’s something we take pride in,” White said. “I understand it is football and those plays will happen but we do not brush it off. We take those personally.”
“We got into every game trying to minimize all the explosive plays. We would also like a few more turnovers.”
2 Responses
I agree with the coach. If UK wants to make this the greatest year and go down in history they need to get a lot more tackles for loss and quarter back sacks and they definitely need to fix the offensive line problems. Do not allow other teams to get their hands on quarter back or running backs behind line of scrimmage, we have to fix that to be a true contender in the SEC….
Well, you can accept where you are and stand around praising yourselves, or you push yourself to get better!