Linebacker Daveren Rayner had an interception for the UK defense to start the game Saturday night but it was downhill for the defense after that. (Vicky Graff Photo)
By LARRY VAUGHT
Kentucky defensive coordinator Brad White is not one to overly criticize his players, but he was not happy after Saturday night’s 48-23 win over Eastern Michigan.
The Cats gave up 461 yards, including 330 yards passing, to a team that was almost a four-touchdown underdog and found way too many holes in the UK defense.
“There were mistakes that were made today that are day one install mistakes,” White said after the game. “It was everything from communication to simple things about getting the call, things that have never happened or occurred here. That will get addressed and that will get fixed.”
Kentucky does not play this week, but White made it sound like it will be anything but an off week for his defense.
“Having the bye week will be good, but they’d better be ready to strap it up and let’s go. This is not an easy bye week, happy-go-lucky scenario. We have to freaking redial-in, get back to the standard we play with, and that was anything but tonight,” White said.
For those who know White, it’s easy to tell how frustrated he was after his team gave up 290 yards of total offense to Eastern Michigan in the first half, when the Eagles averaged 6.3 yards per play against an SEC defense.
Sure, Kentucky had two of its top three cornerbacks not playing, but White was upset with his starters, not the backups.
“Our older guys, our starter, have to play better. If those guys don’t play well, we’re going to be in trouble. You saw it tonight,” he said. “We came out with juice. Held up on the next series.
“Then it just became series after series of somebody raising their hand. ‘That was my bad. That was my miscue. I didn’t get the call.’ It was just that every single person raised their hand on a different play. When that happens, bad things happen.”
White said he got on his players big time at halftime, and the second half was better.
“I thought they responded in the second half, but that’s not us. It starts with m,e, and I promise you I will get that fixed,” White said. “It’s about to get really real, so we’ve got to do way better than the performance we put out there today.”
12 Responses
One of the tendencies of UK football during the Stoops era has been poor performances coming off a bye week.
Well, here we are again, and the next game at South Carolina is a winnable game for this team. South Carolina is very much over ranked, and USC's ANE is lower than UK's at this stage of the season. The home field advantage is all that keeps this game close IF UK COMES TO PLAY IT WILL WIN.
We will see in about 2 weeks if Stoops has learned anything about using the Bye Week to the team's advantage.
SC 28 – KY 12
Stoops Era Games After a Bye Week
2024 10/12 lose at home to Vandy, 13-20
2023 10/28 lose at home to Tenn., 27-33
2022 10/29 lose to Tenn., 6-44
2021 10/30 lose to Miss St., 17-31
2020 11/14 beat Vandy at Home, 38-35 (COVID SEASON)
2019 10/12 beat Arkansas at Home, 24-20
2018 10/20 beat Vanderbilt at Home, 14-7
2017 10/21 lose to Mississippi State, 7-45
2016 10/22 beat Miss. St. at Home, 40-38
2015 10/15 lose to Auburn at Home, 27-30
2014 11/29 lose to Louisville, 40-44
2013 10/24 lose to Miss St., 22-28
We will beat South Carolina if the QB is injured. If Sellers plays I think it will be a close game a 50/50 game. The problem with that is we only have 5 more 50/50 games to get at least 7 wins. South Carolina, Florida, Auburn, Vanderbilt and Tennessee to me are all 50/50 games in the SEC. If we win 2-3 of those games we will need the Louisville game to make a bowl. I do believe that we get the offense and defense straightened out in this bye week come out and knock off South Carolina off. This next game is the most important game of the season. South Carolina is overrated. We do play them at South Carolina and that should keep it close. Vanderbilt destroyed South Carolina at SC. If we can't beat them then we definitely wont be able to beat Vanderbilt. I honestly think we beat both South Carolina and Vanderbilt. I also think we split the Florida and Tennessee game. I think we will end up winning 3 SEC games and winning all of our non conference games. As you can see Louisville struggled with James Madison I think we beat them the last game of the season after the schedule we have Louisville will seem like a cupcake. We will go 7-5 (3-5). If I had a gun to my head I would say Kentucky wins 7 games this year. They might need the bowl game to get there but I think 7 games will be manageable this year. I think we can be even better next year. Maybe 8-9 wins. Then in 2027 with Boley a redshirt Junior we will have our best season ever. Then 2028 could be hesiman campaign for Boley. Maybe 2027.
I knew the week after bye record was not good but forgot it was that bad Professor
Based on Sagarin ratings, I see this UK 15 USC 26.
I believe if both teams play their average game when they meet, it will be very close at the end, and I think UK can get it in a close one, say 21-20.
I'm not impressed with the defense at all. They gave up nearly 300 first half yards to a terrible team. I think they ended up with almost as many yards as we had. That cannot happen against a team that is that bad. Long Beach State dominated them more than we did they had 200 more yards then we did. Our offense is that bad. We could always rely on our defense and last year the plug came out on defense we couldn't stop anyone halfway through the season last year. Yes we did have a ton of injuries but that's what your second team is for they have to be ready to play. I'm going to call in tonight on the call in show and I'm going to ask Bush Hamden why he doesnt have any trickery up his sleeve. All of his plays are easy to see what he's going to do. If he doesn't start calling better plays, he will be the offensive coordinator of eastern Kentucky next year. The league he should be calling plays in. Honestly I think he should have stuck with being a QB coach. He has 0 brilliance in calling plays. Brad White is getting to sound like a broken record as well. The defense and offense sucked last year. This year the defense has been average at best. The offense is terrible. We usually recruit better on the defense then the offense. Stoops offenses has never worked unless the QB can run the football. Terry Wilson ran the football Stephen Johnson ran the football Will Levis ran the football until we told him to stop running then he became a weaker QB. I would get a running QB because we don't ever get good receivers. They are either super athletic and can't catch the football or they are super slow and they cant get open. I think Farrier has the best hands on the team. Problem is he's to slow to get open. The same with Hester. The same with Stellato. They all have terrific hands but cant get no separation. Gilmore is probably the best all around receiver on the team. Then I would go with Kendrick Law. Law and Gilmore need to get more targets in the passing game. We need to blitz more on defense. I'd say half the defensive plays that were called only had 3 people rushing the QB we had 8 people back guarding the pass. Well yes it will be hard to get open but also the QB isn't feeling any pressure so they can basically wait for a receiver to make a move and get a little open and the QB was doing a nice job at letting his receivers get open. We need at least 4-5 guys running in on the QB the only time you would have maybe 3 is a obvious passing down. Even then are you going to let the QB find someone open or are you going to rush more people and put pressure on the QB. We should have blitzed every down and put pressure on there QB. He ate us alive because he had all day in the pocket.
Virginia Tech and UCLA have fired their head football coaches starting week 3 of this season. At least they are serious about trying to win, unlike other schools that I will leave unnamed.
Firing coaches so early used to never happen
we can save our breath about Stoops. It just depresses us even more when we realizer the fix we are in. He ain't goin' anywhere unless he decides to go. In other words ain't going to happen. I would like to see a conversation on who might be a gettable coach 3 to 5 years out from today. It might brighten up the mood a bit.
My grandson is 7. Maybe I can work with him a little and have him ready by the time UK decides to make a change from Stoops.
Seriously though, I don't know Stoops but from what I have read he really cares about his players and coaching staff as individuals. I think that is great, but it doesn't make you a good coach. Stoops needs to find the right coaches, let them coach, and let them run their side of the ball. If you don't trust them enough to do that, why did you hire them in the first place???
You are right RJohn. Buyout is just too big
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