The adage is as old as football itself.”We’ve got to play football for 60 minutes,” head coach Joker Phillips has said all season long.As overused as it may be, it couldn’t be truer for the Kentucky defense. Over the last four halves of football, there have been two entirely different UK defenses on the field – at least to the eye it’s looked like two different units.In the first half against No. 8 Auburn, UK gave up 31 points and 344 yards of total offense. In the second half, the Cats slowed the Tigers to six points and 177 yards. On Saturday, South Carolina ran over the UK defense for 28 points and 369 yards in the first half. The Cats blanked the Gamecocks in the third and fourth quarters and only surrendered 103 yards. “We’ll probably just try to convince them (the first half) is the second half,” Phillips said jokingly at his weekly news conference Monday. “We don’t stretch much in the second half. Maybe we shouldn’t stretch. We don’t stretch in the second half. We usually eat orange slices (at halftime). Maybe we’ll do that at the beginning of the game instead of at halftime.”All kidding aside, it’s looked as if a new defense has emerged from the locker room after halftime the last two weeks. To the casual eye, it appeared as if UK was blitzing more in the second half in the last two games, but Phillips said that’s not the case.”We’ve got to tackle better in the first half,” Phillips said. “We’re not calling anything different. If you look at our film and say we blitzed more in the second half, no, we didn’t.”Phillips said the team just needs to get one stop and get off the field in the first half for the confidence of the players. “The thing that they did in the second half is once they made a play, their body language did change, in my opinion,” Phillips said. “It’s like piranhas. Once you smell blood, everybody wants some. Somebody made a play in the second half, a big play, and everybody wanted to make a play.”Linebacker Danny Trevathan has a couple of theories as to why the defense starts so slowly.”I think we wait for them to attack us first and get us on our heels,” Trevathan said. “In that second half, we’re getting on our toes and attacking them. We’re waiting and seeing what they’re bringing to the table.”Instead of letting the other team set the tempo, Trevathan said the defense needs to dictate the pace of the game.”We’ve got to go out there and attack them first, show them what we bring to the table,” Trevathan said.Trevathan is probably one of the few defensive players that hasn’t missed tackles this season. He leads the Southeastern Conference in tackles (70) and tackles per game (10.0) despite playing with a cast on his left arm.”Danny is one of those guys that puts his face on people,” Phillips said. “That’s how he tackles. He puts his face on the ball.”Asked what makes him so good, Phillips said speed. “He’s a guy that’s fast enough to get up underneath blocks and people to the spot,” Phillips said of the 6-foot-1, 223-pound undersized linebacker. “You have linebackers that are trying to pull that might have leverage on them. They lose their leverage because of how fast he is.”The wild, wild East: One win and just like that, UK is back in the SEC East picture. The Cats are even talking SEC East crown.At 1-3 in league play, one would think expectations would be tapered just a bit, but that’s not the case with this year’s SEC. No team in the SEC East boasts more than two wins, and league favorite Florida has just as many losses as Kentucky. Georgia, who Kentucky plays Saturday, is tied for the division lead in wins despite four regular-season losses.The SEC East is anybody’s game.”It’s always going to go down to the wire who wins it,” Phillips said. “It’s going to be two or three teams. It just happens to be now at this time in the season it’s probably all six of us have a chance. Usually it will always be parity in the East.”Unlike most coaches, Phillips said he’s not afraid to openly talk about the SEC championship in the middle of the season. The team has to keep a one-game-at-a-time mentality, but it’s important for the players to believe the goal is attainable.”I want our guys to hear it,” Phillips said. “Usually you have coaches who say we don’t talk about it. Here in Kentucky, we need to hear it.”Hearing Kentucky and SEC crown in the same sentence is an unlikely pair, but the team is borrowing a similar motto to the one the Boston Red Sox used in the 2004 MLB Playoffs when the team was down 0-3 to the New York Yankees in the American League Championships Series. “Why not us?” Lumpkin said. “Why can’t Kentucky do it?”The Red Sox came back from a 0-3 deficit to win the American League pennant and the World Series.Matthews flourishing: A few weeks ago, following a 114-yard, two-touchdown performance, Phillips said senior wide receiver Chris Matthews was playing like he wanted to be pro.On Saturday he looked like one.Matthews caught a career-high 12 balls for 177 yards and a touchdown against the Gamecocks. On the year, he’s fourth in the SEC in receiving yards per game (68.9) and tied for fourth in receptions (33). “What’s happened to him is he’s learning what to do, therefore, he’s able to play faster,” Phillips said. “He’s getting his head around quicker and being able to adjust to some of the balls that last year he probably couldn’t have adjusted to.”Phillips credited a change in work ethic to Matthews’ success this year.”He’s watching more film, doing those things, the little things,” Phillips said. “He’s always worked hard on the field, but I think he’s doing the little things (like) trying to lead. He’s getting in there early in the weight room, doing all the little things that make guys great players.”