Tre’vonn Rybka, right, celebrates with Deone Walker. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Tre’vonn Rybka is not one of the names you hear the most about on Kentucky’s defensive line but he certainly made a big impression on coach Mark Stoops in UK’s season-opening win.
“I thought Tre’vonn had a very good game. He’s a guy that has played a lot of football for us. I’d like to see him take another step, and I thought this first game showed that,” Stoops said.
“I thought he was disruptive, did his job. A lot of times those interior defensive linemen are unsung guys, nobody talks about them because they’re doing a lot of dirty work and cleaning things up inside there. I thought he played very well.”
Emotion is good in football unless it gets out of control and Stoops said Monday that Rybka, a 285-pound senior, has a tendency to be an “emotional guy” who can let that take away from his play.
“There was one late hit in particular, and I don’t think it was called, but there were some things going on after the play and normally he would respond in a different way,” Stoops said. “He was very frustrated by it but that’s the unselfishness we’re looking for. It takes a bigger, stronger man to take that penalty.
“Just like when we’ve got a gift when someone hit us late and it would have been third-and-one on the goal line. Those aren’t give-mes. They have a chance to stop us, a chance to turn it over, they gave us a new set of downs. It was good by our guys not retaliating.”
Kentucky will need that same mentality by Rybka and others against South Carolina this week because recent games with the Gamecocks have been testy.
“I’ve watched a lot of football. You see things happening all the time of just being an unselfish football team and a smart football team and having a high IQ,” Stoops said. “We’ve got to be that way, we cannot beat ourselves, and football 101, you can’t beat anybody until you stop beating yourself.
“I try to beat that into our guys’ heads and it’s hard in today’s world to be extremely unselfish and play for everybody else, but I think we have a really good group and I think this is a good start to build from.”
