Lessons Learned from PFF's Kentucky Week 3 Report Card

by:Nick Roush•09/20/22•

RoushKSR

Kentucky defense — Dr. Michael Huang | KSR

Each week Pro Football Focus watches the tape to shell out individual grades for every college football team. It’s an inexact science, but it adds another data point to assess the Wildcats’ most recent win. There are a few things we can learn from the PFF report card from the Kentucky win over Youngstown State.

Greatest Improvement: Cornerback Play

There are a multiple of ways to measure the early success of the Kentucky defense. Allow me:

Zero passing touchdowns allowed
1 scoring drive of 50+ yards
4th in success rate allowed
4th nationally in third down defense (17.5%)

The Kentucky defense is doing it all without making a bunch of tackles for loss or sacks. The Wildcats are tackling well in open space and providing tight coverage in the secondary. Carrington Valentine is one of four players in college football with 7 passes defended, the most in college football. His counterpart, Keidron Smith, has a fumble recovery and a pick six (he was an inch from another interception on Saturday).

Valentine received the highest grade for Kentucky in pass coverage, tallying a pair of PBUs and an interception against Youngstown State. Smith allowed zero receptions on six targets. Cornerback play was a weakness in 2021. Now it’s a strength for Brad White’s defense.

Will Levis Efficient When Protected

When Will Levis had time to throw, he was delivering darts. Levis had a clean pocket on 30 of the 42 drop-backs, completing 23-of-29 passes for 324 yards (11.2 yards per attempt) and two touchdowns. He received his highest passing grade on medium-range routes (10-19 yards), completing 7-of-10 passes, however, two of those incompletions were intercepted

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Darrion Henry-Young Popped in Kentucky Debut

It’s unclear why Tre’vonn Rybka did not play against Youngstown State, but it paved the way for the Ohio State transfer to make his debut as a Wildcat. Even though he did not record a tackle, the former four-star recruit received an overall grade of 73.2 in 14 snaps, the fifth-best on the UK defense. Mark Stoops wants to see more, but it was nice to see Darrion Henry-Young apply pressure on the opposing quarterback

Light Work for Kentucky Linebackers

Jacquez Jones received a grade of 90.1. Exceeding 90 is rare, but it helped that he only played 17 snaps. DeAndre Square only played half of the defense’s 46 snaps. Against an inferior foe, the veterans should be receiving some rest to allow the younger linebackers time to develop in live game action.

61 Kentucky Football Players Saw Snaps

Fifteen more players saw the field vs. Youngstown State than Florida. Mark Stoops wanted to get more people involved against the FCS foe. That’s exactly what happened, even though many reserves did not see the field until late in the second half.