UK Athletics Photo
All-American defensive lineman Deone Walker had four tackles, including two quarterback sacks, in Kentucky’s 38-35 loss to Clemson Friday after the defense gave up 28 points in the fourth quarter, including the winning touchdown with just 17 seconds to play after the Cats had Clemson facing a third-and-18 situation.
“As a team, we wanted to have our seniors go out with a bang. Like (running back) Ray Davis, I won’t get to see him next year or play with him. Just not leaving our seniors with that sour taste in their mouth,” Walker said when asked about his motivation for this game.
Kentucky’s defense had to try and stop a Clemson offense that got a short field often. The Tigers only started one of five fourth-quarter drives in their own territory but that one turned out to be the 12-play, 68-yard game-winning drive.
“I would say the whole emphasis on that drive was put up or shut up. I mean, they got their best level and we got ours. We just weren’t able to stick it out,” Walker said. “I still love my defense. I love my corners, my free safeties, my safeties, my D-line, my linebackers. We were all still together, kept the morale up.”
The Kentucky offense turned the ball over four times in the fourth quarter — two fumbles and two interceptions.
“It’s always frustrating when as a team we can’t get it right, we can’t get stuff going. I still love my offense. I love my O-line. I love my receivers,” the sophomore defensive lineman said. “Just trying to keep the morale with everyone up, just trying to stay together.”
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops admits Walker’s play is impressive but values Walker’s leadership even more.
“The way he leads, the way he practices, the energy that he brings every day, the leadership that he shows is most critical to our program, and he’s a big piece of the continuity in the defense,” Stoops said.
“We played a good portion of that game very well. We dug deep, and it showed the character of Deone and a lot of the defensive guys, when we got put in bad situations time and time again, to rise up and to hold them out, and just came up a couple of plays short there at the end.”
Kentucky had 12 tackles for loss and eight quarterback sacks — six different players had a sack — and held Clemson to 367 yards on 80 plays.
“I love my D-line. We all work together, and you all can tell by the second half of the season we started clicking,” Walker said. “Looking at the 2024 season, we’ve got a lot of additions. We have a lot of experience. We’re looking bright with the pass rush.”
7 Responses
The cats will be the only SEC team to lose a bowl game this year. They should leave the Conference since they will Always be fighting for last place. Maybe they might win a game or two in the OVC but I doubt it.
Auburn already lost. We are not in last place. Don’t be an idiot. We are middle of the road. Which is better than the past. Room for improvement? Damn straight. Poor D coaching on the last drive…
Brad White is a very good Defensive Coordinator but when you’ve sacked the QB 8 times, forced an intentional grounding, hurried the QB several times and Clemson having no real speed in their WR group why do they play that Drop 8 Prevent Defense that hasn’t seemed to prevent much over the last couple years? Oh Well…
Classic Stoops…play not to lose and that’s exactly what happened.
We took on the top program in the ACC or @ least 1 of them and they are a elite program just had a unlucky season like UK. Wirh that said we had them on the ropes and led the whole game basically. UK should have been 9-3 at the very least and if we could have kept the 21-0 lead @Mizz 10-2. We are right on the edge of making that jump to those results. Go ask Clemson if UK is a legit SEC team & program. We looked every bit at their level of football program that took a miracle (several) to beat us. Along with UK beating UK again.
Here is my two cents worth. The UK defense got out coached the last 3 minutes of that game. UK using a prevent type scheme when they should have kept attacking Clemson, using pressure which had been successful all day. UK did have some injury issues in their secondary also that didn’t help. Also the TO’s on offense doomed Kentucky, especially the last one. Great game, just typical Kentucky football like us old timers have endured through so many times in the past. That loss hurt. Stoops had no answer when it mattered most.
We agree on that Larry. UK always go soft of defense when they are trying to run out the clock. There’s an old saying, you gotta dance with who brung ya. Meaning, UK didn’t get ahead by playing soft "no lose" defense.
Comments are closed.