D.J. Waller with UK coaches Vince Marrow and Chris Collins. (X Photo)
As good as cornerback Maxwell Hairston was during his breakout season in 2023, Kentucky coach Mark Stoops is hoping for even more this year.
“We feel like we have a great one in Maxwell and I think he is geared up to have a really big year and he needs to,” Stoops said.
The UK coach said his team has “more bodies” to work with at the other cornerback spot and defensive secondary. Stoops mentioned a lot of names, including Michigan transfer D.J. Waller who he said has “great length” some previous UK cornerbacks have had.
Georgia transfers Brock Vandagriff (quarterback) and Jamos “Pop” Dumas-Johnson (linebacker) both played on two national championship teams at Georgia. But Waller also played for Michigan’s 2023 national championship team before transferring to UK in January.
“What I am looking for is guys to be consistent,” UK defensive coordinator Brad White said at UK’s Media Day. “The nice thing is we have a lot of bodies that don’t have to take all of the workload. It’s going to be a really good competitive room and I’m really excited to see how it shakes out.”
Waller played in 11 games at Michigan last year and had 12 tackles and one pass breakup for the 15-0 Wolverines.
Waller said Michigan coached him like he was a “pro” and he learned the focus to keep “stacking” good day after good day in practice.
Waller was close to coming to Kentucky out of high school — he’s from Youngstown — before signing with Michigan. However, after Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh and several assistants left Michigan for the NFL, Waller quickly transferred to Kentucky and figures to compete with Nasir Addison, Jantzen Dunn and JQ Hardaway for playing time.
Waller said at Media Day that he is excited about that challenge and he certainly does not lack confidence in his ability.
“I think I am a one of a kind player. I am long and can really move my hips better than most. I love to tackle. I know I have more in me than I have shown and can’t wait to let Kentucky fans see all that and more,” Waller said.
5 Responses
Coaches say many things, often in cryptic and coded terms and expressions. Regardless of the coachspeak, programs must have each of the following, in rough order of their occurrence, to complete in SEC football at the top levels.
1. RECRUITS: Recruits with natural talents and necessary physical attributes
2. COACHES: Great coaching to develop and utilize these natural talents and physical attributes
3. PLAYERS: Players who take and implement the coaching by:
i) Working hard to Learn proper techniques
ii) Implementing the Techniques Consistently
iii) Executing the Techniques Effectively
iv) Executing the Techniques Efficiently
4. A SYNERGISTIC TEAM: Players with battle-tested experience who incorporate their techniques into a team-wide effort.
Only then can a team emerge that can be competitive with the SEC elites.
It has appeared to me that coaching remarks like, “What I am looking for is guys to be consistent,” and “The nice thing is we have a lot of bodies …" have indicated the level of development that the coaches observe during practice sessions, and can be indicative of where the team and its players stand.
Let’s hope that the coaches and players can clear their consistency, effectiveness, efficiency, and team effort hurdles by the end of August.
We will all find out the answers, starting on August 31. Until then, it is all talk.
Year after year, the preseason UK on paper, based on coach, media & fan hype, is an elite SEC contender. The actual results are so different. 1 or 2 good seasons out of a dozen is far from a program ESTABLISHING itself as a contender.
Until the annual vulnerable gaps are properly addressed & filled, there will continue to be games lost that UK should have won,
Coach Stoops MUST fix issues he has let slide…
•• starting games in a stupor/ trance with players not up to the challenge to START with fire in the tank!
•• Special Teams has lacked a real & dedicated coach for many seasons & Stoops has even said there were games that the special teams hurt us which we lost
•• the ever so obvious, since the loss to WKU in game 1 of season 1 of the Stoops era, control over the OC has been costly season after season until it has now become an annual revolving door! When will he ever learn that he is nearly clueless about offense and only a specialist on defense
These 3 major issues need addressed & FIXED, as well as other very dumb decisions…
•• running “up the gut” over and over and over even though UK gets 0 to 1 or maybe 2 yards, just wasting downs.
•• not sweeping the ends with FAST running backs instead of up the middle where they take a real pounding from the D
•• NEVER giving a backup QB any snaps until he is needed in an emergency with 0 experience!
•• using pseudo-QBs who can’t pass the ball more than 5 yards. Hopefully the new awesome QB and new OC will unleash the ball DOWNFIELD to some receivers who can RUN ROUTES CORRECTLY, GET SEPARATION, CATCH THE BALL, HOLD THE BALL, & BE A PLAYMAKER to gain extra yards!
The only thing this team needs is time to gel. Usually a first year starting quarterback isnt consistent. I think Brock is ready. He’s put his time in. Now it needs to translate on the film. A lot of different sources who has seen him practice says he struggles with control on his long range accuracy. I think we are great in the secondary. If we didn’t add Story from Alabama or Waller from Michigan and we just added experience to last year’s secondary I wouldn’t believe anything about improvement in the secondary. Story would have probably started for us last year. So he’s a great depth piece. Waller played on the best college football team last year with probably the best secondary in college football and still played in 11 games aa a true freshman. Michigan’s and Alabama’s get the 5* recruits and it’s very rare to see one of them start. So for him to get playing time on a team who dominated college football and he would have probably started this year shows what their getting with Waller. I’m more worried about our offense then our defense. I think we have a top 3 SEC defense. I also think we have a top 10 SEC offense. If we can top those numbers and have the #1 or #2 defense and a #6 offense we have a shot at making the playoffs. If we have a average year with the talent we have the we will probably win 8 games and maybe 9 with a bowl win. If we overachieve we win 9-10 games. 9 wins regular season and 1 bowl win would be another 10-3 year. I think this team has the right pieces to win at least 10 games and maybe more. We have to win against Ole Miss or Georgia at home.
All this team needs is attitude. The attitude that says we are going to win no matter what. If they can get that attitude they will go to the playoffs!
Like that attitude Brad