Zion Childress (11) had six tackles against Georgia Saturday. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops calls safety Zion Childress a “good player who does a lot of good things” after his six tackle performance against Georgia Saturday night.
“He usually plays well. He gets a little overanxious sometimes,” Stoops said after the 13-12 loss. “I think Zion has a good feel for the game. He has done some things like any other player. You know what I mean. Any mistake he makes, you know, he learns from them. It looks like he showed up pretty well today.”
Childress had five tackles in the first quarter, including one for a 5-yard loss. He also had a pass breakup that initially looked like an interception return for a touchdown that would have given UK a 10-0 lead before the call was overturned by video review.
The Kentucky defensive back was brutally honest after UK’s loss.
“You could tell guys care. Their heads were down (after the game). Everybody wanted this bad,” Childress said. “I couldn’t be more proud of the execution we played with but there are no moral victories.
“I just came to play today. I played a decent game last week, a fairly good game, I just kept telling myself that was my goal for the rest of the year, to continue to play well every week. Just lead those guys. They’re expecting me to do my job at a high level and they’re expecting me to beat them at a high level.”
Childress said he hoped the way UK played against Georgia would erase some of the sting from the 31-6 loss to South Carolina a week earlier.
“I just hope our fanbase still loves us and supports us. I hope they come back next week and show out in the stadium,” Childress said. “The effort was there last week; the execution wasn’t there. So that was the biggest thing, being able to do your job, knowing what you need to do, and knowing your job.”
Kentucky is 1-2 going into the next game against Ohio before heading to Ole Miss to play Sept. 28. Kentucky’s defense made huge strides against Georgia but Childress there is no time to rest.
“You’ll never be all the way there. There’s always room for improvement. Everybody that suited up on defense, anybody that suited up today, put in some great effort,” Childress said after the game.
8 Responses
Childress played his ass off! If Stoops coached like Childress played, we would be a 10-2 team.
Why dont we ever put pressure on the quarterback? We never have a good pass rush but everyone we play has a good pass rush. I thought stoops said he was going to turn them loose this year? More man to man coverage? All I see is zone heavy defense with no pressure. It does great against the run but terrible against the pass. The opposing quarterbacks get ample time to throw the football. That’s why its hard for our corners to cover because the receivers have time to get open. We need to get after the quarterback put more pressure on them.
Totally agree. That soft zone makes every QB we play look like a Heisman winner.
I think another problem on this team is alot of players are overrated. I buy in when I hear all he compliments and things. Deone Walker hasn’t played like he did last year at this point in the season. In 3 games he has 7 tackles and they are mostly assisted tackles. JJ weaver has 7 tackles and 2 sacks. That’s 2 of our best defensive guys with a combined 14 tackles in 3 games among 2 guys who were supposed to dominate this year. I’m starting to think the coaching staff are boneheads. The best looking player on the offense Is sumo karganbaye.. Its not even a close second. Brock reminds me of Devin Leary a ton of passes batted down at the line. We need better play from our offense. Hopefully against Ohio we get some of the kinks worked out. We didn’t get a full game against southern miss and all the stoppages I think that kind of hurt us against south Carolina. We don’t know who we are yet. The real test will be vs ole miss at ole miss. We will see what this Kentucky team is really made of.
We played a good game. We lost to the #1 in the nation by one point. I know it’s a L but that game let the guys know that they can.
You should never lose to a team that only scores 13 points, no matter who it is.
Childress has been one of my favorite players on the team for 2 years now he always plays hard as hell and I don’t think he has ever gotten the credit he deserves. That being said I don’t understand why he’s not getting more blitz opportunities along with another one he alone created a mess in the UGA backfield if we actually sent him and another LB we would be back there all day. Especially with Walker drawing so many double teams
He was sensational against Georgia