How Chattanooga is preparing the Kentucky defense for LSU

Kentucky’s FCS opponent might have delivered the greatest lesson to the Wildcats so far in 2021. After cracking into the Top 25 with a win over tenth-ranked Florida, some on the dominant UK defense might think their stuff doesn’t stink. Defensive coordinator Brad White does not need to look far into the rearview mirror to remind the Wildcats that they can be quickly brought back down to Earth.

“Every week you look at that next opponent and you know that you can get humbled pretty quick. If you’re doing anything but looking at the opponent you’re about to face, you got other issues. I think this crew is mature, I think the senior leadership has been through enough battles, enough wars to understand how this thing works,” said White.

“You know the other thing that helps — I’m going to call a spade a spade — game three against Chattanooga helps. It really does. You can’t just roll a ball out and play. It doesn’t matter how good you may be playing the quarter before, the half before, the game before, two games before, it doesn’t matter. At any given moment if you’re not focused, it can all go away. The attention to detail has to be at every practice, every period and I’ve been fairly pleased this week so far.”

The LSU game feels ripe for the taking. The Tigers are reeling off a loss at Auburn as pundits preemptively begin the search for Ed Orgeron’s replacement. Even though Joe Burrow isn’t walking through that door, this LSU team still has a ton of National Championship caliber talent.

“They average over 370 yards a game. They average over 30 points a game,” said White. “Let’s not get it twisted, this is a team that can explode on you at any moment. They can do it, obviously in the passing game, but they can also do it in the run game and they’ve got home run hitters. The minute we pop a gap, we get lax, they can be putting seven on you.”

Kentucky already slept-walk through a meeting with the Mocs. They know they can’t get away with another performance like that against a team like LSU.

A New Way to Prepare for Kroger Field

Typically the Wildcats only pipe in crowd noise at practice before they hit the road. Today the UK defense got a taste of their own medicine. Instead of playing Sandstorm while the offense is on the field, today the Kroger Field coal whistle blared through the speakers during the defensive third down period.

“With the home crowds that we’ve had, we needed to do that.”

Joel Williams Steps Up

Joel Williams, a Louisiana native, stepped up in a big way against Florida. One of the six players that was withheld at the start of the season, Williams played more snaps than his five peers, particularly in important moments. White believes more could get into the mix this week as they play their way into shape.

“I thought he stepped in and did some good things,” White said of Williams. “He had shown some good things in practice those previous couple weeks that warranted he could go in and spell D-Rob. That was good to give D-Rob a break, that he didn’t have to handle the load on every single rep.”