Mark Stoops praises the play of veteran defensive back Carrington Valentine

Carrington Valentine was the target of a lot of criticism for Kentucky last season. As one of the few corners available and healthy for the ‘Cats throughout the entire 2021 season, Valentine shouldered a lot of the blame for the team’s below-average pass coverage.

This time around, Kentucky is healthier and older in the secondary, with Valentine’s development into a reliable veteran leading the charge. And against Florida, he came through on several plays, especially in the second half. Most notably, he broke up Anthony Richardson’s pass on 4th and three in one-on-one coverage against Gator wideout Ja’Quavion Fraziars with eight minutes to play.

After the game, UK head coach Mark Stoops was asked about Valentine’s ascension this year given the up-and-down career he has had so far. You can watch Stoops talk Valentine around the 7:00-mark in this video or read his comments in full below.

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Mark Stoops praises Carrington Valentine

“Yeah, Carrington has been really solid, you know. He’s just a good player again, one of those guys who’s getting more and more reps under his belt and just playing winning football. And that — the play he made on the fourth down — you know, that’s a really big time play.”

It was. Perhaps the defensive play that sort of sealed the game for Kentucky. But even when praising such a performance, Mark Stoops still saw some decisions from Valentine that could have been better.

“And he’s got to understand, that fourth down, when they go that way, nothing would piss me off more if they caught a slant right there. That’s football 101 and he made it still not easy because those guys can run. They don’t have to run the slant. Next time, they’ll probably run slant and go since i just said that but, you know, he’s got to be playing that.”

So a great play and a bullet dodged by Valentine on that fourth down? Sounds like it, according to Mark Stoops. Overall, though, a day worth remembering for Carrington Valentine. Along with that fourth down pass breakup, he had another play where he took down Anthony Richardson on his own a few yards short of a first down. Big plays all night for No. 14 on defense for the Wildcats.