Afari, Childress Providing Flexibility on Defense
Kentucky defensive coordinator Brad White will admit that he likes guys who can play multiple positions. In doing so, it gives a player more opportunities to get on the field, but as a coach, it also gives White more options when coming up with his defensive scheme.
“We preach for our guys to be able to be multiple,” White said. “And when you can be multiple within the scheme, it allows us flexibility to do different things and it makes it harder on offenses.”
Following Thursday’s practice, White discussed Alex Afari and Zion Childress, two of the players who have taken on the task of playing multiple positions this fall.
“Those two specifically and they are two guys who have really bought into that,” White said. “Both Zion and Alex (believe) the more we can do, the more versatile we can be, the more packages we can bounce in and out of, it makes it harder to identify.”
Childress was pressed to play out of position last season when Andru Phillips was injured against Mississippi State.
“You saw last year when Andru went down in the Mississippi State game and (Childress) jumped in there,” White said. “It’s nice to be able to play him in some of that field overhang – nickel, medium, all of that. At times, he can get closer to the box. He’s got a great feel for football. That position is so much about feel.”
Childress prefers to be closer to the line of scrimmage and more involved with contact rather than waiting in the back for action that might or might not come his way.
“Getting him close to the action, I know he loves that,” White said. “Where he can get his nose dirty and get in and make tackles, be able to blitz a little bit more from that spot. It’s a good thing for him and it’s a good thing for our defense. It allows us to be multiple and flexible.”
As for Afari, he has been able to play outside and he’s now working on playing some inside linebacker. White likes what Afari brings to the UK defense.
“He can still play out to the field, he can come in, he’s a really good ‘will’ linebacker,” White said. “Everything is going to come down to getting guys in the right situations against the right personnel. So much is personnel matchups. You’re trying to get the right bodies on the right bodies.”
White knows that playing multiple positions is not easy and he noted a sense of pride in Childress and Afari for their hard work.
“I’m just really proud of those guys, in terms of how they’ve bought into it,” White said. “You’ve got to put in a lot of work to be able to play different positions like that.”
Afari and Childress are putting in that work. In the process, they are making themselves, and the entire UK defense, better.
