3 Things Brad White Learned about the Kentucky Defense at Spring Practice

The Kentucky football team is approaching the end of the road for the 2023 edition of spring practice. The Wildcats will meet a few more times before breaking until June. Defensive coordinator Brad White shared with the media the progress his players made and the lessons he learned from them over the last month at the Joe Craft Football Training Facility.

Kentucky Defense Further Along in the Playbook

Throughout this spring practice Brad White threw more at his defense than ever before. Each practice is scripted to create various stress tests. Typically, the defensive coordinator would give his players basic calls to execute. This spring he’s asked his experienced group to execute more advanced calls in difficult situations. It’s a better simulation of what they’ll experience on Saturdays in the fall.

“They’re getting comfortable being in uncomfortable situations,” UK’s defensive coordinator said Thursday.

“A lot in the past I feel like I’ve tried to give them very comfortable calls when it’s chaotic situations just so they can ground themselves. I’ve just tried this spring — I feel like we’ve gotten enough veteran players — to try to put them in a little bit more uncomfortable state because I think that’s more realistic to what actually happens in the season. They’ve done well, and I think it’s gonna pay off for us. It’ll help us in those situations.”

Brad White Remembers the Edges are still Young

Last year the Wildcats signed three stud outside linebackers: Keaten Wade, Tyreese Fearbry and Noah Matthews. The latter was the only one without four stars next to his name in recruiting services. Behind JJ Weaver in the pecking order at Edge, they need time to learn the nuances of the position. They’ve made mistakes throughout the spring, and White has to remind himself that it is exactly what they should be doing at this point in their careers.

“When you have bigger players — guys like Fearbry, Matthews and Keaten Wade — you forget they haven’t even been on campus for a full year. At times I expect them to make plays and set edges and do things that veteran outside linebackers do. I treat them as veterans and then you’re like, ‘Man, they haven’t even been here for 12 months. They’ll be so much better, even in fall camp.’ But they are progressing and they’re gonna have to help us this fall.”

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The Most Reliable Position on the Kentucky Defense

The Kentucky defense has had the upper hand for a good chunk of the spring practice session thanks to veteran leadership and playmaking at all three levels. The back of the defense is where Brad White believes Kentucky is at its best.

“We talked about having three starters back there. I mean, you’ve got three starting safeties. That’s such a luxury these days and we’re excited to get him right back in the mix.”

The player White is referring to is Jalen Geiger. People forget that he was arguably Kentucky’s best defensive back when he suffered a season-ending injury at Florida last year. Jordan Lovett stepped up in his absence and has not taken his foot off the gas this spring. Zion Childress has been the most pleasing development of spring practice. A student of the game that always has a pen in hand, ready to learn, Brad White says his confidence is “through the roof.”

“Those are the guys that they can’t get enough. They last in football a long time,” White said.

With three veteran safeties, Brad White will get to throw a ton of different schematic wrinkles at his opponents. More importantly, Kentucky needs all three just to stay healthy in the back of the Wildcats’ defense.

“It’s a lot of wear and tear. If you’re asking one position to just stay in for every snap of the game, those guys are going to wear out. So there’s plenty of snaps to go around and we’re gonna be able to keep each of those guys fresh so they can play fast, they can all play physical. That’s gonna be a position group that I rely on because of the experience, because of their play-style because of the mentality, all three of them.”