Carrington Valentine playing with strength and swag after a learning year at corner

As Kentucky Football plays out its spring practice in Lexington, there is a big job opening in an otherwise experienced defensive depth chart. Kentucky needs immediate help at cornerback and the CB2 spot on the field is wide open for the taking this offseason. Currently, inexperienced returner Andru Phillips leads for the starting role, barring any additions from the transfer portal where there will almost certainly be one or two pick-ups out of necessity.

But at the other starting corner spot, the Wildcats return Carrington Valentine, a junior with 13 starts and 23 games played on his two-year resume in Lexington. Valentine’s experience has him locked in for more starting assignments in his junior season this fall and his defensive coordinator, Brad White, realizes the importance of having a veteran like Valentine lined up outside.

“He played the second-most snaps for us on our defense last year. He played over 900 snaps out there,” White noted after Thursday’s spring practice. White added that 2021 was almost like a redshirt freshman year for Valentine, given the COVID circumstances and protocols surrounding Valentine’s first year on campus in 2020.

“Even though he’s year three in the system, it’s almost like he’s about to go in year two. Last year was almost like he played as a true freshman as much as he did a redshirt freshman.”

Also available for conversation Tuesday, Carrington Valentine called last season a learning experience as a first-time starter in the SEC.

“It was a learning experience really, like, I feel like with that being my first time starting that season, me getting all those reps, it was a lot of things I can take away from it,” Valentine said. “There were some things that I’ve never seen before, some things that like I had to recognize and learn about as I went on because it was just new.”

Seasoned, rough, and playing with swag

Now that the learning year is behind him, Valentine is growing comfortable in his role as a veteran leader in the secondary. Brad White said, “You have 900 snaps and you start to get a feel of what wide receivers are starting to do to you and what offenses are starting to do to you. You’ve got enough scars that are starting to heal that you build those callouses and now he’s a bit more seasoned and rough, playing with some swag.”

In addition to swag, Valentine has spent the offseason getting stronger to improve defending the “top of the route,” a popular phrase in Thursday’s conversations. White said, “He looks better, he’s getting stronger at the top of routes. We still gotta keep his hands up in press. He’s got length and the ability to stay patient and slide at the line of scrimmage. His route recognition is getting better and his understanding of wide receiver splits, and a lot of that is just growth.”

When Valentine was asked where he can improve, he replied, “The biggest area I would say was, my main thing was being stronger at the top of the route, so I feel like that was more of a technique and more of a weight room-type thing. I finally got to feel that SEC, full-season experience, and what an SEC receiver was truly, actually like so that has been a major point and recognition and all that.”

A young leader

Not just swag and strength, Valentine added leadership qualities to his new-year, new-me list this spring. Though he feels young in only his third spring on campus, he has taken on more responsibilities as the most experienced player in the cornerback room.

“I feel like I’m still a fairly young guy,” he said, “but I feel like I’ve had to mature really quickly because they wouldn’t have that role model in there and I feel like I had to step in that big brother position, step in that leader role position to help them learn the playbook, teach them about splits…

“They come to me and I kind of push them to Coach Collins (for answers),” he joked.

Another job responsibility, Valentine was asked how he sees the cornerback rotation playing out and which young guys are candidates for playing time.

“I feel like all our young guys are going to have to play this year,” he replied before naming Maxwell Hairston, Elijah Reed, Andre Stewart, and Adrian Huey, a list of freshmen and sophomores. “All those guys are going to have to step up. We’re a thin group so I feel like those are all the names you should look at, the whole cornerback group.”

Then there is Valentine’s classmate, the aforementioned Andru Phillips, a fellow third-year corner who fell behind last season while sitting out to deal with an off-the-field issue. As Valentine sees it, Phillips made up for lost time in a hurry.

“Dru’s already caught up,” he said. “Even when he missed a lot, he was still in on the playbook so I feel like Dru’s–we’re all still learning, but I feel like he’s right where he is supposed to be.”

More from Valentine following Tuesday’s spring practice…