(Vicky Graff Photo)
Eastern Kentucky coach Walt Wells heard how unhappy Kentucky coach Mark Stoops was with his team even though the Wildcats opened the season last week with a 44-14 win over Ball State.
However, Wells, who spent two years as a quality control assistant at UK under Stoops, thought he saw a “Mark Stoops defense” that impressed him going into his team’s game at UK Saturday.
“They look like the Monsters of the Midway over there,” Wells said Tuesday.
Wells was part of Stoops’ staff in 2018 when UK went 10-3. He was there also in 2019 when UK won seven games and his responsibilities included breaking down offensive film of future opponents. The Kentucky defense ranked fourth nationally in passing yards allowed, ninth in passing efficiency defense, 12th in scoring defense, 14th in fewest first downs allowed, 20th in total defense, 23rd in red-zone defense and 31st in sacks in 2019.
He said Kentucky’s “overall speed and ability to get to the football” jumped out at him about UK’s defense.
“I just how hard they play and how hard they hit,” he said. “(Defensive coordinator) Brad (White) is going to be sound. Brad is intelligent and a really good coach. They really run to the ball and hit.”
He thought UK linebacker Trevin Wallace, the SEC Defensive Player of the Week, delivered a near-perfect punishing blow to create the fumble safety Jalen Geiger returned for a touchdown.
“But he had another one just as impressive coming off the edge,” Wells said. “They are physical. It’s a typical Stoops team and Brad White defense. Even when I was coaching against them at Tennessee (in 2016 and 2017) you could see it coming.”
Wells also praised UK’s offensive line, a unit that was heavily criticized last year and then lost three-year starter Kenneth Horsey early in the game when he went down with an injury.
Wells tried to recruit UK offensive line coach Zach Yenser to Eastern Kentucky and Yenser was actually a college roommate of EKU offensive line coach Erik Losey. He knows Yenser is a “good coach” who has the line going in the right direction.
“They were hitting targets better, playing more physical, coming off the ball better,” Wells said. “It’s tough sledding when you are playing in the SEC. That’s the difference in the Big Ten and the SEC. It’s not as much O-line as it is the D-line and the (NFL) draft record proves that,” Wells said.
“They are young up front in some areas but I see them growing. We watched last year’s tape (of UK’s offensive line). They lost two or three NFL players off that line from a few years ago.”
One Response
To bad Horsey went down in the first game. I hope he is back like Stoops said in a week or two. I believe the UK OL has beefed up this year with new players, appear to be better and all, but school is still out on this group. I don’t think you can really be sure about the UK OL until they face a SEC defense.