Mark Stoops believes he has an experienced secondary that "can be really good." (Vicky Graff Photo)
Despite losing NFL first-round draft pick Maxwell Hairston out of last year’s secondary, Kentucky coach Mark Stoops has high expectations for the UK secondary in the 2025 season.
“The secondary can be a real strength of this team,” Stoops said. “Where they could take it to another level — one thing is just really being dialed into the situation, football IQ, being very smart. What’s the down and distance? What’s the situation of the game? What’s coming? Anticipating things.”
Kentucky returns J.Q. Hardaway, D.J. Waller, Terhyon Nichols, Ty Bryant, Jordan Lovett, Cam Dooley, Jantzen Dunn and Quay’Sheed.
Defensive coordinator Brad White likes the experience he has in the secondary and that he will “rely” on the secondary to provide cohesiveness for the defense. He expects the cornerbacks to win more one-on-one battles than they lose for the safeties to be “playmakers” all season.
“I don’t want to get the cart in front of the horse, but I feel like the secondary can be really good,” Stoops said Saturday. “We’ve got some good experience, you can see the length we have out there with J.Q. and D.J. DJ is really playing good football, he really is.
“The safeties, they’ve got good experience and they can run. We need to keep them healthy and develop some depth.”
Hardaway could be a rising star. He transferred to UK from Cincinnati and played in all 13 games with one start in 2023. Last year he started all 12 games and had 47 tackles — fifth on the team — along with four pass breakups, two interceptions and a forced fumble. He had 11 tackles in the win at Ole Miss.
Kentucky co-defensive coordinator Chris Collins wants to know who will take over the reins as face of the UK secondary with Hairston gone.
“We have got a unique group. We got returning starters. JQ Hardaway did a really good job for us last year in an elevated role,” Collins said. “He was a primary starter along with Max and then Max went down and we had some guys that had to step up a little bit, maybe sooner than they probably imagined. They did a really good job in those roles.
“I’ve been excited to see how JQ did throughout the summer. Last year was a big year for him. We talked about the third year in the cycle and understanding what it takes, the process, how to prepare those things and the offseason grind.
“Last year was a big deal for him. He carried a lot of that momentum that he had from last year into this offseason and now I am excited to see kind of where he’ll grow during the season.”
3 Responses
The secondary has been a big weakness for the UK D year after year. The Secondary coach had some very good players but never put them in position to stop 3rd & long. I think UK has a new coach & hopefully he can turn that around.
Preseason hype has not panned out the past 3 seasons. Giving compliments to an untested secondary with a new coach by saying it may be the strength of the D is a put down to the DL & Linebackers who have been the most consistent part of the UK D the years when the secondary was so porous. A bit risky to put such a label on them.
I agree. The secondary has been about as bad the offensive line. They go back forth game by game. Each playing terrible. This year with Hardaway(3rd year in program. Waller(2nd year in the program. I expect at least 6-7 ints combined. Both are about 6'3" with huge wingspans. They cover alot of ground in a zone scheme. I also expect Lovett and Bryant to combine for another 5-6 ints. That's between 11-13 ints for the starting secondary this year. Also Nichols, Dooley, and Scott will be great. Nichols and Scott are my two darkhorses to have big seasons. In college football your only as good as your second string. There always a bunch of injuries we usually double other teams in injuries. So we definitely need both the second and third strings to be ready as well. Our biggest problem in football isn't usually the starters. Are starters are usually just as good as any other team in college football. It's our second team were we start dipping in production big time. We need to not just run the ones with the ones and so on in practice. You have to rotate guys and let them get first team reps so when a injury happens and they go in the game they are ready. To many times ive seen someone get hurt and then we get destroyed at that position when the backups come in. This year I think more than ever our second string doesn't drop off as much. For a team with ample injuries this should help out. I do think if we would have been say 5-2 or even 4-3 last year midway through the season we wouldn't have had over 20 players injured halfway through the season. I think when guys start getting beat they fake injuries to make it look like the injury is the reason it's happening. Players aren't accountable anymore. I do believe this will be our best secondary in the last 4-5 years. We haven't had this much experience in the secondary in Stoops whole 12 years going on 13. I think he will field his best secondary this year. I also think we have gotten a lot of lazy players out of the system. Which should pay dividends for bending but not breaking this year. I think we have the oldest football team in the SEC this year. I'm pretty sure I read that right earlier. We have either the oldest or the second oldest team in the SEC. I think this will be the difference maker in us making a bowl game. I'm trying not to feel for Stoops the way I felt about Calapari. But it's starting to get like that. almost like they have wore there welcome. We will see. This is a do or die year for Stoops. If we go to a bowl and have a fun season and win more than 7-8 games he could win the fanbase back. If we lose more games then we win. The fanbase will be done with Stoops and Kentucky football until we get another coach. It's just like that. Black and white. No grey area. Win or go back to Youngstown.
The past dozen years UK has not been kind to anyone who is not a starter – QB’s, Linemen on O & D, and most D jobs have all been void of experience for back ups. No practices (or nearly none) with the 1st team & then out of sync in games when called on in an emergency.
Some simple things (letting more players practice with the 1st team practice squad & at least several plays in real games) are standard for successful programs. Just as the coaching staff having a full time Special Teams Coach is a standard procedure, but not at UK the past dozen years. If UK was in the Top 10 and did some non-standard things, it would not be an issue. But 4-8 is not a Top 10 program.