April 8, 2009

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky defensive line went from dormant to dominant during a mini-scrimmage at the end of Wednesday morning’s practice at the Nutter Training Center.

“I’ve been very upset with our D-line.  I’ve been on them for three or four days about getting off on the ball and finally they did today,” Coach Rich Brooks said.  “Obviously, our offensive line wasn’t quite ready for that, so that’s the tempo we need to practice … get our line ready to see full-speed, get-off-the-ball pass rush.

“We need to see that type of energy from our defensive front,” Brooks continued.  “It was nice to see Wyndham and Ukwu (redshirt freshman defensive ends Taylor Wyndham and Collins Ukwu, pronounced “OOK-woo”), two guys I wasn’t very happy with the first three or four days on their ‘get off,’ turn that dial up today and show they have some capabilities of really helping us this year if they’ll continue to play at that level.”

The Wildcats return to practice Friday morning.  The first full scrimmage is set for Saturday.

Mason to Tight End: Redshirt freshman DeAunte (dee-AUN-tay) Mason has moved from quarterback to tight end, Coach Rich Brooks announced following Wednesday’s practice.

“We knew he had an athletic ability when we recruited him, and we were going to give him an opportunity to play quarterback, but at this stage it doesn’t look like he’s going to be in the mix so we just need to try to get him in a position where he can have a chance to be successful,” Brooks said. 

Mason, a 6-3, 220-pounder from Nashville, Tenn., was “Mr. Football” for Tennessee Class AAA as a senior at Pearl-Cohn High School. He went through a redshirt season at UK in the fall of 2008.

Spring Practice Calendar: Practices are open to media and fans.  Practices are held at the Nutter Training Facility unless noted otherwise.  Practices might be moved indoors to the Nutter Field House in case of bad weather.