Ty Bryant (14) and teammates celebrate after one of his two interceptions against Ole Miss. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky’s uninspired offensive play in Saturday’s 30-23 loss to Ole Miss got most of the blame for the Cats again losing a Southeastern Conference home game.
Kentucky defensive coordinator Brad White thought his group was also at fault.
“We’ve gotta be better. You got to look at the tape, but from what it felt like on the field, we got to be able to tighten down on the edges of the defense both against the pass and then the runs that got out were edge issues, so we gotta get those fixed,” White said after the loss.
Mississippi’s Kewan Lacy ran 28 times for 138 yards and one touchdown and was named the Doak Walker National Running Back of the Week. Ole Miss ran for 220 yards and had 455 yards of total offense. The 5-foot-11, 210-pound sophomore’s biggest plays came on the Rebels’ final push, running for 38 yards on the drive that set up Lucas Carneiro’s 36-yard field goal that provided a 10-point lead with 1:10 left to play.
Kentucky missed several tackles on the edge that led to big gains and also was soft in its pass coverage at times against the balanced Ole Miss offense.
“That’s no different than the last two times we’ve faced Ole Miss. We know it’s going to be hitch tackle. Obviously it was worked on ad nauseam this week, but it’s way different doing it in practice versus doing it on an SEC receiver, but those are plays that we have to make. Our guys know they need to make those,” White said.
Kentucky was without injured cornerback DJ Waller.
“Not having DJ Waller, who got injured Wednesday in practice, obviously affected us,” Stoops said.
White was not using Waller’s absence as an excuse for the defensive miscues.
“Anytime you don’t have a player, there’s a compounding effect on depth, especially when you lose a good player like DJ, but that’s football,” White said. “There’s going to be injuries you have to deal with. We’ve got full confidence in JQ (Hardaway) and Terhyon (Nichols) and Kevis (Thomas) was good, went in today a little bit.
“Those guys, I mean, it’s what they signed up for. They made some good plays and they made some ones that they want to have back. But it doesn’t determine how confident I am in them, I’ll go out there and play another game tomorrow with those guys.”
