Our secondary?
- Thread starter screwduke
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UK is legit at safety (on paper, best in 30+ years), but is young (West and Edwards). Marcus Walker may be better than all of them but will be a True Freshman. Stamps showed flashes last season and with a year under his belt should be able to lead that group better. McWilson showed much improvement last season, but he has to make the plays when they are there. The dropped INT against UofL was a backbreaker. Guys of his caliber have to make those plays. Not really worried about safety as long as West and Edwards can stay healthy and show development. Again, on paper, you have three consensus 4 star HS recruits at that position. Not sure if Stamps was or not. Walker probably should have been a 4 star.
Corner is a mystery. On paper, overall depth and talent wise its better than its been in awhile. However, the main talent is very young. Some of the most experienced guys just are not SEC caliber and if they continue to start and play most of the minutes there is real cause for concern. Jaleel was a 4 star guy who has been criticized as being more of a track guy than football player. Its now or never time for him. Jared Tucker is a mystery. Had a ton of really nice offers coming out of HS, but you do not hear much about him from the staff. McClain and Randolph are legit. Will be interesting to see if any of the True Freshman can come in and make an impact. For now, the position is ok, but we need to see some of the young guys step it up. Having Stoops coaching that unit now should help. His best work as an assistant was coaching that position.
As another poster mentioned, a big problem has been at the LOS and at LBer. Do not care how talented your secondary is, if the there is not a legit pass rush constantly being thrown at the QB (at the SEC level) they are going to pick you apart. Run support has to get better. Relying on smaller secondary guys to have to constantly tackle big and physical SEC backs is a recipe for problems. I think the secondary looks a lot better if the front seven gets much better this coming season. Remains to be seen.
Overall, its a C grade unit with the potential to become a B grade if things go well. Not sure there is enough talent, depth, and experience to get into the high B or A grade area.
Corner is a mystery. On paper, overall depth and talent wise its better than its been in awhile. However, the main talent is very young. Some of the most experienced guys just are not SEC caliber and if they continue to start and play most of the minutes there is real cause for concern. Jaleel was a 4 star guy who has been criticized as being more of a track guy than football player. Its now or never time for him. Jared Tucker is a mystery. Had a ton of really nice offers coming out of HS, but you do not hear much about him from the staff. McClain and Randolph are legit. Will be interesting to see if any of the True Freshman can come in and make an impact. For now, the position is ok, but we need to see some of the young guys step it up. Having Stoops coaching that unit now should help. His best work as an assistant was coaching that position.
As another poster mentioned, a big problem has been at the LOS and at LBer. Do not care how talented your secondary is, if the there is not a legit pass rush constantly being thrown at the QB (at the SEC level) they are going to pick you apart. Run support has to get better. Relying on smaller secondary guys to have to constantly tackle big and physical SEC backs is a recipe for problems. I think the secondary looks a lot better if the front seven gets much better this coming season. Remains to be seen.
Overall, its a C grade unit with the potential to become a B grade if things go well. Not sure there is enough talent, depth, and experience to get into the high B or A grade area.
Soooooo young at corner, but safties may be the anchor of the D. So some good some bad. Being young on the edges look for a lot of cover 2/3 and mixing the comers into the blitzing schemes on the more exotic blitzes. With that being said, stoops loves to use his safeties for blitzing and run stopping so if that continues expect me to bite my nails and scream "DO NOT GET BEAT DEEP" when we show blitz....
Happy with safety, cornerbacks are a HUGE worry. Gotta have some freshmen show up to campus ready to compete, I'd rather go with a raw frosh than a senior who has already shown in 3 previous years that they just can't get it done.
One positive, our first 3 SEC games in 4 weeks do not feature great QB play or dangerous passing games. South Carolina & Florida both could not pick a QB in Spring. Mizzou went something like almost their entire spring without Mauk even completing a TD pass in scrimmages.
Hell who is the best quarterback/passing game UK faces in 2015? Prescott at State, although they lost a helluvalot.
One positive, our first 3 SEC games in 4 weeks do not feature great QB play or dangerous passing games. South Carolina & Florida both could not pick a QB in Spring. Mizzou went something like almost their entire spring without Mauk even completing a TD pass in scrimmages.
Hell who is the best quarterback/passing game UK faces in 2015? Prescott at State, although they lost a helluvalot.
i agree about the safety's and cb's. i think everyone will be up in arms about the same guys being out there week 1 but i think by week 4 or 5 the younger guys will start to pass them. randolph, edwards, hytche, mcclain, and tucker all have shots to upgrade corner and baity and westy are probably more physically gifted cb's than we've had here in quite a while. the older guys are finally sr's as well so maybe they play better this year too.
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