'Tackling has been an emphasis': Kentucky's defense is looking to show improvement against Texas

Tackling has been a massive issue for the Kentucky defense in 2025. That might be an understatement. Defensive coordinator Brad White‘s unit is having a disappointing season mostly due to the tackling inefficiency. UK went back to work during the bye week to try and fix the problems. Will it work.

Kentucky is expected to get starting cornerback DJ Waller Jr. back in the lineup for the first time since Week 1 against Texas but this is not just a cornerback problem. This has been a team defense problem for the Wildcats this season.

“Whoever is out there on the perimeter — whether it be a corner, safety — you’ve gotta be able to execute that tackle. It’s not just on the corners,” White told reporters on Wednesday. “The Ole Miss game in the first half with the hitches it was, but you think about the Georgia game it came at every level. It came from the safety position running inside out. The linebackers running inside out on bubble screens. So everybody’s gotta do a good job.”

In practice throughout the bye week and through game prep for Texas this week, Kentucky has gone through tackling circuits at practice but have added some wrinkles. Brad White says that the Cats have added stressors that require the players to do something if there is a bust or missed assignment. That has likely increased the competition level but practice is different than the game.

“We’ve been learning about ourselves through these first five games and areas we need to work on,” said Kentucky’s long-time defensive play-caller. “Obviously, tackling has been an emphasis. The one thing with tackling is you can practice it, you can drill it, but there is so much that has to happen on game day that they’ve got to be confident.”

Stressing confidence has been a huge talking point for Kentucky football since the loss to Georgia. Safety Ty Bryant said the defense had a unit meeting this week where White stressed for his unit to just go play, have fun, and let it rip. Bryant says that has led to the best week of practice since fall camp. The Cats are doing all of the right things but it still needs to translate to Saturday.

“I’ve loved their energy this week. They haven’t been dobber down, head down. There’s really good, as good of energy as we’ve had all season going into a game. There I’m really pleased,” White said. “I hope that translates to confidence. You hope that it’s not fake. That it’s not just fake bravado. That it’s true belief in themselves.”

Kentucky went to work to fix a problem. They made some changes to fix this problem. Will that help them find solutions? We will find out on Saturday night.