'We just gotta work it all': Kentucky has plenty to clean up with perimeter tackling

Tackling was brought up as a concern by the Kentucky football coaching staff following the first 11-on-11 scrimmage in Kroger Field back in August. It has remained a big concern for the Wildcats through five games. This defense has a tackling problem.

According to PFF data, UK has missed 59 tackles through five games. That’s 11.8 missed tackles per game. Most notably, the Wildcats have allowed 692 yards after the catch in coverage. Offenses are averaging 6.2 yards after the catch this season. But it’s not only missed tackles — UK is failing to leverage the football and is allowing short gains to turn into huge gains due to the defense’s inability to properly pursue and corral the football.

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Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops was asked about the tackling inefficiency and if the program needed to switch things up. The former defensive coordinator at Arizona and Florida State says that due to most of the problems occurring in space, going full-go tackle to the ground probably isn’t going to help. It sounds like UK has to work on the fundamentals after five games.

“It’s always a fine line. I think the tackling has been an issue. In particular on the perimeter. That’s something that tackling to the ground — I don’t know how much that’s going to help. A lot of that is our position on the football, and it hasn’t been great. We haven’t made great one-on-one tackles,” Stoops told KSR. “We’ve had games as recent as last year where everybody in the country is calling me, talking about how we do our drills, how we tackle.”

Kentucky had some strong performances early in the year against Georgia and Ole Miss where the Cats were getting off blocks on the perimeter and totally shutting down the quick passing game. That is not occurring this year. The Cats have gotten very young at the nickel position and have dealt with some injuries at cornerback. This has all led to some poor tackling results. Will the results improve? That seems like a big TBD at the moment.

“I don’t know. There’s no recipe. We do a lot of drills. We do tackling circuits just about every day we’re in pads, and we’ll continue to do that. I think it’s really our positioning on the football hasn’t been great,” Stoops explained. Whether it’s DBs on the perimeter being too soft and not being able to get them to the ground. And some plays on the perimeter when they’re designed to get on the outside, we haven’t been great. There’s some talented players and there’s some other times where we’re just not in good position.”

The Cats do not have a magic wand. UK needs to coach positioning the football better in space and the players must execute better. Offenses know where the weaknesses are and will continue to attack the Cats in this vulnerable area until this defense proves it can clean up the leaky perimeter defense. Kentucky is doing what is knows best to help fix the problems.

“We just gotta work it all,” Stoops said.