What We Know: Kentucky Defense

The Kentucky defense has an established standard. Since defensive coordinator Brad White arrived on campus, the Wildcats have produced a top-15 defense twice and have consistently been one of the best units in college football at big-play prevention. The group entered the season with top-25 expectations.

An argument can be made that the defense is coming short of that after seven games.

Over the last eight quarters of football, Kentucky has allowed 89 points. The pass defense was carved up against Georgia, and Brady Cook peppered the Wildcats with short passes in Missouri’s 38-21 win against Kentucky. However, White’s unit is doing some good things and will be back to playing winning football quickly if they can eliminate some foolish penalties.

After touching on the offense earlier this week, we are now going to take a closer look at the Kentucky defense.

Leaky pass defense

Kentucky’s defense entered the season with many known commodities. Deone Walker and Trevin Wallace looked like potential All-SEC performers in the front seven. The Wildcats have a deep defensive line. All of the pieces were there for this group to be stout in run fits.

That has all checked out through seven games.

Walker has a chance to make an All-American push, and Wallace has made huge splash plays all season. Kentucky ranks No. 13 in rushing EPA/play and No. 18 in yards per rush. Kentucky is stopping the run and playing to expectations in the front seven. However, the Wildcats also had some major questions entering the season.

The pass rush still remains a concern (21.2% pressure rate in four SEC games), and two new starting cornerbacks were stepping in on the outside. Kentucky needed their three returning safeties to provide a backbone as the cornerbacks went through some growing pains. That has not happened.

Maxwell Hairston and Andru Phillips have each had good moments, but safety play has been a problem for White’s defense. Add in that the pass rush has not been consistent in SEC play and that has led to some bad moments.

Graham Mertz completed 83.3 percent of his passes in Week 5. Carson Beck threw for a career-high 389 yards in a 51-13 Georgia victory in Week 6. Brady Cook was super efficient (58.6% success rate) in Week 7. Kentucky has allowed 5 of 7 foes to go north of seven yards per attempt. The pass defense is a problem.

Kentucky is getting ball production (seven interceptions), but efficiency has been a huge problem. The Cats rank No. 125 in passing success rate (47.1%) and No. 127 in completion percentage (67.5%). Big-play prevention is again a strength (12.9% explosive pass rate), but the defense is falling behind the chains constantly on passing plays.

Opposing offenses have recognized this and have not been afraid to go pass-heavy on standard downs. Part of the reason why Kentucky ranks No. 107 in third down efficiency is due to early down efficiency. This defense is constantly playing behind the chains.

If Kentucky does not start forcing some incompletions or more short-yardage completions, there will continue to be issues. Why is Kentucky struggling in two-minute situations? Because they give up way too many completions and struggle to win on pass plays.

Fast starts

At this point, I believe it’s fair to say that the Georgia game was an aberration. Kentucky has been a fast-starting defensive unit in 2023.

Vanderbilt was held scoreless in their first six possessions with three 3-and-out possessions and an interception. Florida was held scoreless in their first five possessions with three 3-and-out possessions and one interception. Missouri was held scoreless in their first three possessions with two 3-and-out possessions and one interception. The Tigers needed a fake punt to score on their fourth possession.

Kentucky is starting games fast. Now the group must work on counterpunching once the offense finds success. Most notably, things have tended to fall apart in the two-minute drives to end the first half. White’s defense is doing some very good things, but they now need to work on continuing these fast starts.

Missed tackles are piling up

Kentucky played some very good defense during the first five weeks of the season. However, the last two games have been ugly. Most notably, missed tackles are beginning to pile up. All three levels of the defense are contributing to this problem.

Kentucky enters Week 8 ranked No. 80 in PFF tackling grade. That ranks No. 12 in the SEC ahead of only Texas A&M and Florida. Starting safety Zion Childress leads the team in missed tackles (10). Rotational safety Jalen Geiger leads the team in missed tackle percentage (33.3%). Octavious Oxendine (26.3%), J.J. Weaver (25.9%), Andru Phillips (19.4%), and Deone Walker (18.2%) also have some high miss rates.

Against the best two offenses that Kentucky has played, the Wildcats had some bad tackling moments. That must get fixed now. The Wildcats are currently giving up way too many yards in the air. This defense cannot allow opposing offenses to create cheap yards after contact.