By Keith Taylor
Special to NKyTribune
How does Kentucky’s defense rank against the rest of the 13 teams in the Southeastern Conference? The numbers came out Monday and they weren’t pretty.
The Wildcats, who surrendered 479 yards in a 40-33 win over Louisiana Lafayette Saturday night in the season opener, ranked in the bottom of the conference in rushing defense (247 yards per game) and 11th in the league in pass defense at 232 yards. The scoring defense (33 points) was last and the total defense (479 yards) was next-to-last among conference foes.
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said the defensive numbers following the opener were the result of missed assignments, technique and the youth factor.
“It’s all of it,” Stoops said. “Clearly we need to do some things better. It (youth) magnifies things when you completely blow something and give them a big run. That compounds your problems. So we know that there’s always things that we have to get better or we have to be more physical, we have to be more precise and we have to make better open field tackles. You’re going to miss certain things in the first game that and you know you’re going to miss things all year.”
Stoops and his staff have little time to make significant corrections with the SEC opener looming at South Carolina Saturday. The Gamecocks, led by multi-purpose running back and receiver Shon Carson, held off North Carolina 17-13 last week and racked up 254 yards rushing against the Tar Heels. Stoops said “it’s very important” for the Wildcats to forget about past mistakes they made against the Ragin Cajuns and focus in the task ahead.
“It’s very important for us to get settled in and to get things cleaned up,” Stoops said. “You certainly can’t give up big runs. I mean, that’s how they won the game last week. They hit a big long run. I think we can’t be in a situation where we’re playing 80, 90 snaps on defense and only 60 on offense. That’s not the recipe that we need.”
The absence of linebacker Ryan Flannigan (shoulder) and at least four newcomers making their debut on defense presented early issues for Kentucky, which Stoops said couldn’t be avoided.
“There was no getting around some inexperience for us,” Stoops said. “Obviously, Flannigan not playing didn’t help matters, because we had talked all camp on being a little bit more solid inside, and knowing we’re gonna go through some growing pains with some outside linebackers.
“Then with throwing in a new starter and playing a freshman inside along with some new outside backers compounded things a little bit. But again, it is what it is. I can’t recall playing that many true freshman (in a game).”
Although the defensive struggles were evident, especially along the front, Kentucky’s secondary collected two interceptions in the opener, second in the league behind South Carolina, which had three pickoffs in the win over North Carolina. Stoops also hopes his team learned a lesson after nearly blowing a 23-point lead in the second half.
“You’ve got to be able to handle your business and play every snap,” he said. “That’s the big learning opportunity that we have to take from this game. Defensively there cannot be one fraction of a letdown or bad things happen as we see.”
Keith Taylor is a columnist and senior sports reporter for KyForward.com