Effort, Energy, Enthusiasm Boost UK Defense

The Kentucky defense played one of its best games of the year in Saturday’s 10-3 win at Auburn. The Cats will face yet another challenge this weekend when the Florida Gators visit Kroger Field.

Following Wednesday’s practice, UK defensive coordinator Brad White spoke to the media, and he talked about how hard and well his unit played on Saturday.

“What stood out on Saturday was the effort with which they played,” White said. “There was effort, there was energy, there was enthusiasm, they were pulling for each other, the whole nine. So we need to repeat the performance of that. Then you tack on execution and that ended up being a good night.”

The Cats were seemingly in the Auburn backfield all night on Saturday, registering seven sacks in the process. White talked about how that defensive pressure can affect opposing quarterbacks.

“You create a dirty pocket and it creates some frustration for quarterbacks,” White said. “It keeps their eyes from staying downfield on receivers. All of the sudden, you hit them a couple of times, they start to get a little more antsy in the pocket, they start to feel it collapse.”

The Cats will have a challenge this week, facing Florida and its dynamic quarterback, DJ Lagway. White has been impressed with what he has seen from Lagway both in person and on film.

“He’s a really good player with terrific arm strength,” White said. “He can throw from different arm angles and he can run. He runs way better than most people give him credit for. He had some big runs against us (last year).”

Last year, Florida had several big plays against the UK defense. White knows that it will take the entire unit to prevent those things from happening again.

“There are so many different things, it’s not just on the back end,” White said. “We’ve got to do a great job of disrupting the quarterback. We’ve got to play with clean eyes in the back end. We’ve got to play with good technique. You (have to) understand when it’s time to challenge, when it’s time to play off. We have to do a good job, mix some coverage. It’s a combination of everything.”

Coming off of another outstanding performance, the UK defense is preparing for yet another challenge this week in Lagway and the Gators.