Kentucky has to tackle better if it hopes to play with Texas. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky defensive coordinator Brad White has never been one to deny the obvious, and he knows that UK’s tackling has been atrocious at times this season.
That’s one big reason the defense is giving up over 400 yards per game going into Saturday night’s home game with Texas. White also didn’t need a bye week to figure out that the tackling has to improve.
“We’ve been learning about ourselves in the first five games and areas that we need to work on. Obviously, tackling has been an emphasis,” White said after Wednesday’s practice.
White tried a few new drills during the bye week in hopes of finding a week to have better tackling — or fewer missed tackles — against Texas as well as UK’s other six remaining games.
“The one thing with tackling is you can practice that, you can drill it, but there’s so much that has to happen on game day that they’ve got to be confident enough. In a drill, if I mess up, it’s not a touchdown. If it’s on Saturday and I mess up, it can be a touchdown, it can be a first down, it can be a big play,” White said.
That’s a significant reason the UK defense has struggled to get off the field on third down.
“Trying to add stress within a drill where there are repercussions, where there are consequences, and finding a way to add stressors. We keep trying to find ways,” White said.
It has not been just one player making mistakes and missing tackles. It has been a team-wide problem, and that makes it harder to correct.
“Whoever is out there on the perimeter, whether it be a corner or a safety, you’ve got to be able to execute that tackle,” White said. “It’s not just on the corners. In the Georgia game, it came at every level; it came from the safety position running inside out, and the linebackers running inside out on screens. So everybody’s got to do a good job.”
Texas had been struggling offensively at times this year, but seemed to come together in the second half of last week’s win over rival Oklahoma. Texas quarterback Arch Manning is the nephew of Peyton and Eli and the grandson of Archie, who all played against Kentucky.
“I don’t think people realize what he’s doing, how he’s operating. Every game has been a little bit different, and he’s handled it great,” White said about Arch Manning. We understand the huge challenge that (Manning) presents, and that whole offense. The speed they have at wideout and the talent in the backfield.”
8 Responses
Brad White had built a very good defense which made a big contribution to having two 10-win seasons. Those days are now history & seem to be too far gone to make a decent recovery.
3rd & long has become one of the plays opponents must look forward to facing because the Uk secondary has been so consistent in giving up 15 to 20 yards which bails out the opponent & gives them confidence to drive for a score.
It seems the locker room “loser mentality” which rattled the offense because of the lack of leadership by the HC & OC (& OC Line coach) has been slipping into the defensive players during these past few years.
Missed tackles were like a blooper comedy show when chjoker kept his “friend” as the DC. It’s sad to see the defense built up by DC Brad White failing on a weekly basis.
Can the defense recover if a new & competent HC & OC are suddenly on the sidelines? No sure, but the secondary lapses have now spread to other parts of the defense.
It’s just a theory, but I do believe that a big part of why Brad White & his defense have suffered is because of the spillover from the inept offensive coaching – handcuffed by Stoops for a dozen years & inconsistent because good OC’s are run off and bad OC’s are just yes men who let Stoops control the offense.
I appreciate the detailed stats VV gives in most articles. In a few lines of stats, a comprehensive picture of the UK FB program is revealed. It supports every word of the article, with so many UK FB team stats around 100th in the nation. Embarrassing!
Boycott Homecoming!
White's defense has never been consistent on stopping 3rd and long or 4th downs. In those situations, they play way off their man, supposedly to stop the "Big" play. On pass plays in these situations, they will run up to their man, wait for them to catch the ball and then try to tackle them. If they miss, which happens often, then it's an even bigger play. They never watch the ball and try to hit their man just as the ball gets there. If the other team tries a run play in these situations, seldom is the edge sealed to push everything to the middle. Then it is one on one on the edge and UK gets beat more often than not.
I really think White's defense has been steadily getting worse year after year and part of that is because they are on the field so much.
On last thing, I don't see a really good linebacker on this team and that really hurts.
Old Fan I'm with you. But the problem with the KY defense is they are not talented enough press efficiently. I have not witnessed a KY DB go one on one with wide out this season and win. Always a step behind. Secondly the KY defensive secondary protects by committee. That's why you see the offense throw beneath coverage against KY and succeed. Unless White has something new to throw at Texas, Manning will pick us apart.
There is so much that is wrong with this team that it seems pointless to focus on any one aspect. If that is all that is allowed, I would focus on finding a new head coach. Coach Stoops, I hear that Virginia Tech is gorgeous this time of year!
UK 13
Texas 32
I hope UK can get to 13 Professor
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