Terrific news. I know some here (even myself to a degree) were worried about our group of CB's. Westry should be able to help us out tremendously.
Relieving news: CB Chris Westry showing out early
- Thread starter Rhavicc
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Have to feel that it's in 7 on 7's or something. Live play. Hard to show a fascinating performance otherwise.
Stoops can work with these guys on a limited basis, right? I heard Terrell Buckley at UL talk about the new rules that permit summer contact.
I'm *a lot* more worried about the defensive line and linebackers than the secondary..if we can't stop the other team's running game it won't matter how good the secondary is..our secondary isn't the reason we were giving up 40+ points a game in SEC play..our pass defense was actually ranked in the top-25 in the nation for much of last season, and we were one of the best secondary's in the league at getting interceptions..our rush defense on the other hand was just terrible..one of the worst rush defenses in the history of Kentucky football..the front-7 is a whole lot more important to our success and is the area we should worry about a whole lot more than the secondary..as with most seasons our skill players are comparable to most, but SEC games are decided in the trenches, and I'm worried about the d-line, not the corners..if the d-line does its part in stopping (or marginally slowing down the run) and rushing the passer, then everything else will fall into place...our secondary last year was decent, our d-line was terrible..I know which one I'm concerned about
Baity is also getting some good comments form offseason workouts. Anyone hearing anything else about the freshmen ?
Sorry, have to disagree. Though not solely responsible, the secondary was a big contributor to that 40+ ppg. Gave up way too many big plays, missed way too many tackles, and dropped way too many easy picks. But, to your point, believe there was plenty of blame to go around across all the units.
Regarding the poor run defense, the linebackers were the bigger problem than the D-line. Missed assignments, slow reads, and not enough aggression. Too often it appeared they were the ones receiving, rather than delivering the blows from the runners. Did start to see those things turnaround at end of season, though, as light started to come on for Forrest and Flanigan.
Not the least bit worried about our D-line. Really like our two deep, and believe we'll even see good production from the third stringers. Much improved depth this year, especially since moving to three man front. Believe we'll see breakout performances from either Johnson, Meant and/or Dubose this year.
I agree Navy, the secondary to me is more of a question mark.
elliot was on the leach report today and he said that all spots are always in competition but just going off what happened last year and in the spring... he felt a lot better about lb'er. he said flannigan had 14 tackles in both of the last 2 games, i believe they were his highs for the year, and that forrest was the leading returning tackler in the sec. he didn't mention ware on the other side but said that we did have question marks but seemed really high on hatcher going forward. granted, it could of been coach speak but i get the feeling that he was being mostly honest with that interview especially while talking about lb'ers.
i think jabari will be good enough this year to play a bunch if ware isn't fully ready and then those 2 would basically flip with jabari getting 80% of the snaps and ware getting 20%. im guessing that walker should be back at least midway through the year and will give us and extra space defender for teams like ms state, ut, and florida. firios and hendrix will be able to back up forrest and flannigan to a better degree than either got last year.
elliot also said that quinn and tiller did look better in the spring. both added weight and he mentioned that they both got thrown out there too early. they SHOULD only be rs jr's. neither are gonna play in the pro bowl but they may end up being big surprises by the time the season rolls around. granted neither have the athletic ability to cover elite receivers which is why they really hope one of the freshmen can step up and be that 1 on 1 guy to put on a pharoah cooper or demarcus robinson.
i think jabari will be good enough this year to play a bunch if ware isn't fully ready and then those 2 would basically flip with jabari getting 80% of the snaps and ware getting 20%. im guessing that walker should be back at least midway through the year and will give us and extra space defender for teams like ms state, ut, and florida. firios and hendrix will be able to back up forrest and flannigan to a better degree than either got last year.
elliot also said that quinn and tiller did look better in the spring. both added weight and he mentioned that they both got thrown out there too early. they SHOULD only be rs jr's. neither are gonna play in the pro bowl but they may end up being big surprises by the time the season rolls around. granted neither have the athletic ability to cover elite receivers which is why they really hope one of the freshmen can step up and be that 1 on 1 guy to put on a pharoah cooper or demarcus robinson.
Was it a typo or did I see that Hytche made his way into a backup role?
Also, if Stoops decides to go the youth route, we need to expect some burns our first year. After that, though, the experience will pay dividends. Looking forward to seeing on the field what Stoops saw on tape.
Also, if Stoops decides to go the youth route, we need to expect some burns our first year. After that, though, the experience will pay dividends. Looking forward to seeing on the field what Stoops saw on tape.
Hope J Hytche is getting it. He is an athlete, but his reaction times have seemed too slow in the past.
Totally agree with this. Our D line was probably the best part of our defense last year. Most of the running lanes were in lanes that should have been filled by LBs. Also our secondary was weak at defending the run. Both Stoops and Eliot backed that statement up several times last year. Both stated at least a couple times that D line wasn't the issue. The issue is we need to get bigger and more physical on our second and third levels. I thought our D line was pretty good last year. It was LB play that I was most disappointed with. I know Forrest has a lot of tackles but most of them were down field.
Also the point about being top 25 pass defense is misleading. We played a lot of really bad QBs last year. Also the run defense was so poor you were basically stupid for trying to throw the ball against us. Remember the criticism Spurrier got for throwing the ball. Safety play came on a lot towards the end but our corner play killed us the entire year. Also really poor LB play until the last two games or so. The D line played well enough to win games.
the criticism of Spurrier was probably fair, but then he probably respected our DBs as much as you. UL tried to run the ball down our throats and could not. But, then, Bolin to Parker killed us.
Pass defense stats were up cuz teams didnt have to pass...just ran it down our throats all nite
I feel like at the end of last season, our run defense was noticeably better. Somewhat out of nowhere too. Louisville didn't really have any slouches at the RB position, and they were really ineffective in that game.
Parker on the other hand, he killed our CB's. A CB like Westry (very long, very athletic and very quick) should be able to help us next season against the Robinsons (Florida) and Wilsons (Miss St.) of the world.
Parker on the other hand, he killed our CB's. A CB like Westry (very long, very athletic and very quick) should be able to help us next season against the Robinsons (Florida) and Wilsons (Miss St.) of the world.
Not particularly true. Coaches see weaknesses in teams. If our pass defense truly was worse than our run defense, teams would have passed. I believe that I read somewhere that UK placed top 15 or so nationally in explosive plays allowed, and majority of explosive plays are long passes.
The SEC has always been a RB league. Teams ran because that's what SEC teams do. They run.
There are very very few CB's that can impact Parker's play one-on-one.
Our run defense number for yards the last half of the season were in order:
303
326
156
305
214
and 83.
That's an average of 231 yards a game which would put us at 114th on the NCAA ranking for run defense.
I'll stand by the old axiom, The game is won and lost in the trenches.
Our run defense number for yards the last half of the season were in order:
303
326
156
305
214
and 83.
That's an average of 231 yards a game which would put us at 114th on the NCAA ranking for run defense.
I'll stand by the old axiom, The game is won and lost in the trenches.
Residual fallacy: you've taken a statistical discrepancy and simply inserted your own "reasons" for the discrepancy in place of all other logical reasons for said discrepancy, assuming all other variables are equal when, in fact, they are not.
Consider:
- Teams with losing records almost always give up more rushing yards than passing yards, but that is not an indicator that their pass defense is better than their run defense. When teams are ahead (like most teams were against us last year) they run to ball to kill the clock. They stop passing the ball because incompletions stop the clock. The team in the lead may well have gotten that lead by throwing against a porous secondary and then kept the lead by milking the clock against a worn out run defense.
- Corners and safeties are part of run defense too, you know. There are running plays--most prominently the stretch and read option--that put the onus of tackling on members of the secondary. In the spread offense world, corners that can't tackle are just as much a liability as a linebacker that can't tackle.
- Most of all, the idea that the secondary played better than the front seven simply doesn't pass the eyeball test. The front seven had two NFL players, including a first round pick, massive talent upgrades at DT and LB, and a couple of other future NFL prospects. The secondary has one guy, Stamps, that we're pretty sure is going to be an NFL guy. Everyone else is iffy at the next level or has no chance at sniffing the NFL.
First if you are relying on CB's and Safeties to stop the run you are already in trouble. (Example UK vs UL 2014)
Second we don't play 12 out of conference games a year, we play 8 games in the SEC known for it's running offenses. Re-watch the SC game and tell us what you think Spurrier could have done different to win that game. That's easy the announcers were talking at length about it.
Third you assume I'm saying the secondary played better than the front seven. I've never said that and you are simply wrong on this point. However we could have had all-Americans playing corner-back and we would still be poor against the run.
Now what I am saying is the run defense is every bit as bad as the secondary play. I even made the point that against UL we single covered Devante Parker so we could stop the run and pressure the QB.
Fact is almost anybody that knows anything about football knows if you cannot stop the run you have a very high probability of losing. Improving secondary play is a big concern sure but stopping the run especially in the SEC is even a bigger concern. You may think those stats compiled over a season are not significant but I'm pretty sure most good coaches in the SEC know their importance and don't rationalize them away. Check out those teams final standings in the run defense stats.
We have always had pretty good skill players. Post Fran Curci we've stumbled along with weak defensive and offensive lines. Brooks made a good effort at correcting that and made some modest improvements but Joker seemed to ignore the problem.. Witness the results.
Stoops seems to prioritize correcting this weakness. But it takes longer than three years of recruiting to make up for the neglect. Unfortunately this season may closely mirror the last. Linebackers with 325 lb offensive tackles sitting in their laps and cornerbacks trying to cover receivers for four plus seconds.
Things will change if Stoops stays. However, until we start fielding redshirt juniors I'm not going to expect any miracles,
Stoops seems to prioritize correcting this weakness. But it takes longer than three years of recruiting to make up for the neglect. Unfortunately this season may closely mirror the last. Linebackers with 325 lb offensive tackles sitting in their laps and cornerbacks trying to cover receivers for four plus seconds.
Things will change if Stoops stays. However, until we start fielding redshirt juniors I'm not going to expect any miracles,
I think this current crop of OLine recruits can see the skill they will be blocking for and want to be part of the revolution.
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