Deone Walker, center, is a "dude" that worries Ohio coach Tim Albin. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Saturday’s game against Ohio is one most Kentucky fans expect should be a breather for Kentucky to get its offense cranking before it plays at Ole Miss Sept. 28. However, Mid-American Conference teams have not been a pushover in many years and this season already have two noteworthy wins.
Northern Illinois pulled off a huge upset by winning at Notre Dame and Toledo got a Southeastern Conference win at Mississippi State last week.
Still, Ohio coach Tim Albin insists his team faces a huge challenge at Kentucky Saturday.
“Huge challenge on the road. An SEC school, they’re big everywhere and physical. Their defense — I don’t see a weakness,” he said after the Cats held Georgia to just 13 points. “Without breaking them down, I don’t see a weakness in their defense. We’re going to have huge matchup problems.”
The biggest matchup problem for Ohio will be All-American defensive lineman Deone Walker.
“He is a dude. He’s a first rounder. He is dynamic,” said Albin. “They’re all good, don’t get me wrong, but he is — they’re really, really good on defense, probably as good a defense as Ohio State in ’08.
‘When we played ’em, they returned nine starters and had the No. 1 defense in the country. We’ve played some good ones. They’re going to be up there.”
He noticed the physicality Kentucky had against Georgia coming off a disappointing loss to South Carolina and knew UK coach Mark Stoops had to love that.
“They responded. That’s what you’re after. He’s gotta be proud of it, I would think. His coaching staff challenged them and he’s got their locker room. They went out there and delivered,” Albin said.
“They played hard. You could just see it on film. It speaks volumes to their staff. I hope our film shows that to our opponents. That’s a goal as a head coach.”
2 Responses
He hasn’t played that great this year. If you look at how he grades out he’s like 6th on the team. 0 sacks and a couple of big missed sacks. Where he ran right by the quarterback. I think his weight was carrying him away from the quarterback. I thought he would at least have 2 sacks by now as much NFL top 10 talk I’ve heard. JJ Weaver is leading the team in sacks with 2. Remember I said JJ will either come in second or beat Josh Allen’s all time sack record. I think he has 20 for his career and he needs 31. I think he needs 6 more sacks for second which he should easily get. I say he ends up with 29-31 sacks so it will be close barring injury.
The other DL and the backs should be taking advantage of their opportunities because BIG Deone is drawing so much attention with double teams. I would like for him to get more sacks & tackles but believe he is also very valuable because he leaves a bit of an opening for someone else to take advantage of the gap left because he is double teamed.
Weaver & Jackson habe both played some very, very good D and the presence of Walker is a benefit to them.