First Down Kentucky: Impressive Defensive Numbers and Schedule Talk

by:Nick Roush•09/30/24•

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Big Blue Nation is still relishing in the victory over Ole Miss. Fortunately, there’s no need to move on quickly. Kentucky has a bye week to let us marinade in the spoils of war a little longer. The rest of the college football world is pressing forward, and in this case, it means there are more potential big-picture changes on the horizon.

Next week leaders from the SEC and Big Ten will meet in Nashville to hash their plans for the future of college football. The two leagues that dominate the sport want to be on the same page before they go to the negotiating table during the next round of CFB Playoff expansion talk. The 12-team Playoff format is currently only locked in through the 2025 season.

ESPN’s Heath Dinich reports the Big Ten and SEC each want four automatic bids in the next iteration of the CFB Playoff. Considering the competition, that doesn’t sound too steep. That’s not the biggest news from this report.

The SEC and Big Ten are discussing a future scheduling partnership. The pitch: each league plays nine conference games and one opponent from the other conference. The Big Ten is only willing to make this happen if the SEC expands from eight to nine league games. Even though it feels inevitable at some points, talks of adding an extra SEC game to the schedule have died down as of late.

What does that look like for Kentucky? If this goes through, the Cats would play ten Power Four teams a year, with one from the Big Ten. The Louisville series would certainly be axed. Instead, Mark Stoops might get a home-and-home with his alma mater, Iowa. The old border rivalry with Indiana may also be renewed.

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It’s still early in the process, but in this climate of college athletics, the wheels of change are constantly in motion.

Eye-Opening Kentucky Defensive Statistics

Many people are asking, is this Mark Stoops’ best defense at Kentucky? While we cannot unequivocally answer that question right now, the stats say it’s certainly under consideration as his best yet.

Scoring Defense: 13.4 points per game (No. 14)
Total Defense: 244.2 yards per game (No. 9)
Rush Defense: 78.2 yards per game (No. 9) on 2.83 yards per carry
Third Down: 30% (No. 19)
Red Zone: 62.9% (No. 16)
SP+ Defense: 17.5 (No. 17)
Havoc Rate: 17.8% (No. 2)
Success Rate: 17.8% (No. 12)

Kentucky got after Jaxson Dart

Jaxson Dart did not have fun playing football on Saturday. According to PFF data, the Ole Miss quarterback was pressured off his spot 16 times on 38 dropbacks. That’s just over 42% of the time. Incredible. He was hurried 10 times and sacked five times. Maybe even more remarkably, Deone Walker was in the game every time Dart dropped back to pass. This Kentucky defensive line is the real deal.