By Keith Taylor
Kentucky Today
Kentucky’s football roster features a mixture of transfers, returnees and newcomers on both sides of the ball this season.
For the past two weeks, defensive coordinator Brad White has been getting familiar with the Wildcats as he enters his eighth season and his seventh as the team’s top boss on defense.
“When you integrate a lot of new people into the organization, you’re trying to get them comfortable in our routines, and they’ve done a great job of sort of getting used to that, comfortable with that,” White said.
To help prepare his unit set for the upcoming season, White showed the defense an inspiring video of singer Jelly Roll’s speech to the Tennessee Titans this week.
“I showed that to the guys just because, man, you can’t just build that consistency for an hour or two on the football field or an hour or two in the locker room,” he said. “It’s got to be all the time. So we’ve been pushing that because there has been a fair amount of turnover.”
Much like his players, White was inspired by Jelly Roll’s speech and liked the message the entertainer brought to Tennessee’s locker room.
“He talked about when he was a better father and a better human, he became a better songwriter and performer,” he said. “It’s the same thing in every profession. You tend to find that when you mature in all areas of your life, there’s carry over.
“It’s like the Olympic ring — it’s a Venn diagram. They all bleed in. I can’t live wrong off the field and expect to be that guy on the field. And then vice versa.”
Overall, White said he likes the way his team bonded in he off-season and during preseason camp.
“It’s been a very seamless transition,” White said. “The guys, they really like each other. They’ve sort of grown with each other. It’s been a good mix of new guys, you know, guys that have been in the system. … There’s a lot of growing in that system-wise, you know, you’re trying to build scars, you know and scabs as fast as you can, because you’re going to touch the stove, you’re going to make mistakes, and that’s what camp is for.”
Despite the experience factor the transfers bring to the program, White said the staff can’t take it for granted, especially when it comes to making defensive checks on any particular down and defensive scenario.
“I probably did not do a good enough job last year with that, especially when you’re trying to integrate transfers,” White said. “Maybe you take for granted that they’ve had 1,000-1,500 snaps, but they haven’t had 1,500 snaps in your system. You have to kind of rewire the way they’re thinking so it fits within our scheme. But they’ve done a great job of it.
“The older guys have done a great job of trying to help coach up the new guys. I think we’re progressing, but we’re going to need every practice we can get.”