Going Against Kentucky Defense in Practice a Real Pain for UK Offense

Kentucky's offense is pushed daily in practice by the Kentucky defense. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Remember last week when Kentucky defensive coordinator Brad White talked about how UK’s offense challenged his defense daily and even made him a better coach trying to match wits with UK offensive coordinator Liam Coen?

Now Coen has more than returned the compliment.

Coen’s offense struggled to score touchdowns in UK’s intrasquad scrimmage Saturday and Coen said going against White’s defense was a challenge for everyone, including him.

“It’s a pain. Brad is hands down one of the best coordinators in the country, if not the best. He throws so much at you every play,” said Coen.

“If you’re just scripting a play against our defense you have to be ready for odd, okie, four-down, four-down over, four-down under, jam, pressure from the boundary, pressure from the field, safety pressure, corner pressure.

“It’s a lot. It’s a lot, so when you have to — even just scripting one run play, you have to make sure that run has answers for all those defensive looks. That’s not easy. This is great for our offense to play our defense every day which is one of the best in the country.”

Coen noted that White’s “bend but don’t break philosophy” doesn’t allow a lot of explosive plays and in the red zone will alternate blitzing with dropping eight players into coverage and then letting Deone Walker spearhead a three-man rush that can still get to the quarterback.