Mark Stoops Explains Why Brad White is a Special Defensive Coordinator

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Why is Kentucky defensive coordinator Brad White so good at his job?

Kentucky coach Mark Stoops knows there are a lot of reasons that make White, who has been on Stoops’ staff six years now and starting his fifth year as defensive coordinator, so special.

“He’s very intelligent, number one, but there has to be a relationship, there has to be a connection with the coordinator and the offense or the defense and Brad has a good connection with the players,” Stoops said.

“You have to be talented in your scheme, you have to know what you’re doing because you see so many different things. We’ve talked about a lot, but you know college football, there’s a lot of different things you’re going to see and a little more liberal with some rules as compared to the NFL. Just unbalanced set, and the creativity, you can’t do that in the NFL.”

Other schools have tried to lure White away and it’s easy to see why going into UK’s season-opening game against Ball State Saturday.

Kentucky has 26 or fewer points per game the last four seasons, the first time that has happened since 1986-89. The Cats have also given up 160 yards rushing or fewer per game for four straight years for the first time since 1959-62.

The UK defense has held opponents to 30 or fewer points in 43 of the last 50 games and the Cats have given up more than 24 points just once in the last 17 games.

“I think the knowledge is there. I think a little bit unique about Brad is he was always good, and I hired him early for his experience with outside linebackers and the front (defensive line), but he has extremely good knowledge of the secondary for a front guy, so to speak,” Stoops said Monday.

“It’s really important to be able to have a handle on all 11, and understand all of it, and he certainly has that and has enough to change up. He also has a good balance of what we can execute. It’s not so much always about what we know – we can create all kinds of things, there’s a lot of knowledge in that room, but what can the players execute and how can we play at a high level?

“I think there’s always a balance in that, and that’s a challenge week-to-week, year-to-year, and so those are things he’s had good pulse on but again he does a good job, he has really good intelligence, he knows what he’s doing with the entire defense and he really has a strong relationship with the players. Gets a lot out of them and that’s the key to it really.”