Jamin Davis' abs want Thursday Afternoon Spring Practice Notes

Once upon a time, I aspired to have a six-pack. Instead, I went to college and drank many six-packs. This week Jamin Davis taught me that six-packs are for losers. Davis has at least an eight, maybe a ten-pack? There are too many to count.

After he impressed NFL scouts at UK Pro Day, his old defensive coordinator joined reporters to talk about the latest from UK Spring Practice. Here’s a little bit of what Brad White had to say after practice No. 8.

Tons of Defensive Tackle Options 

In 2019 Calvin Taylor was arguably the best 3-technique defensive tackle in the SEC. Slotted in between the offensive guard and tackle, it takes a ton of strength to play the spot where run stuffers thrive. Somehow the 6-foot-9 Taylor was still able to rack up 8.5 sacks, the second-most in the SEC.

That level of production at defensive tackle was not replicated in 2020. To produce more results, White is looking at a committee of players to fill the spot. All of the highly-touted redshirt freshmen from 2020 are in the mix — Rogers, Rybka, Hayes and Ox — as well as Isaiah Gibson and Abule Abadi-Fitzgerald, who White believes is having “a really good spring.”

“That spot will probably not be settled until we kick off, and even throughout the season,” White said. “I want somebody who’s going to show up day in and day out. It’s going to be a battle.”

Incredible Impression 

I asked White what goals he wanted his unit to accomplish entering the second half of spring practice. He responded by channeling his inner Coach Yoast, “Not give up another yard.”

The quick, stern response was, frankly, kind of shocking. You gotta see White take a page from Remember the Titans before he lets out a laugh by watching the video below.

Learning in Buckets

Once White cracked a joke, the defensive coordinator explained exactly what he needs his players to grasp by the end of the spring season. After using an Instant-Pot analogy on Wednesday, today he helped us visualize concepts with buckets.

“What I want our guys to understand is our concepts because when you get into season and you gameplan and you want to make small tweaks here or there, if they understand the concept, you can make those adjustments. You can make pattern changes. You can make cover adjustments because all you’re doing is switching bodies. But if you don’t understand the concept of what’s trying to get taught and the technique that’s related with the concept, every defense is a new defense and it’s like rogue memory.

“What we’re trying to do is create buckets and say this is just like this. ‘Oh, I got that coach. I’m not learning two things. I’m just learning how to put two things into one bucket or four things into one bucket.’ But if they can’t learn the concept, it seems like four different buckets and you’re bound to lose something that way. And we can’t be as multiple, as diverse if we don’t understand concepts.”

The bucket analogy is not so different than how an offense can run the same play concept in seven different formations. They only have to learn one play, but the opposition must be prepared for the seven different versions of it.

The Kentucky Football Starting Basketball Five

Before he started regularly enjoying sack lunches and turnovers on UK’s defense, Wright was a hooper. The self-proclaimed best baller on the team after leading Dillard High School to a state championship, the 6-foo-5 outside linebacker shared what his UK Football starting five would be:

PG: S Tyrell Ajian
SG: OLB Jordan Wright
SF: WR Earnest Sanders
PF: OLB J.J. Weaver
C: DT Abule Abadi-Fitzgerald