WATCH: Brad White on Trevin Wallace, Jordan Lovett & Justin Rogers

Thursday morning the Wildcats officially reached the midway point of spring practice. Kentucky defensive coordinator Brad White discussed the highs and lows of the 15-practice season and shared insights on a few rising stars.

Wallace is Learning Linebacker

Trevin Wallace made incredible plays in his first season as a Wildcat. The former Top 50 recruit earned SEC All-Freshman Honors without having a great understanding of the position. The goal this offseason for Wallace is to learn the position so he does not exclusively rely athleticism to make plays.

“He’s very athletic. We all understand that. He just made plays on pure athleticism. He was learning the linebacker position, the instinctual piece: linemen climbing up, having to use my hands. For him this year the big piece is how to play linebacker. It’s not, just be a great athlete at the linebacker position. Now it’s let’s be a great linebacker that’s really athletic. That’s where his progression needs to go. He’s not going to make that full jump right away, it’s a growth process. You saw it with Jamin (Davis) and how many years it takes in this defense with all of the complexities that it has. We put a lot on those guys, but he’s very intelligent, he’s very conscientious and he wants to be great.”

Lovett Keeps it 100

Entering his second season in Lexington, North Hardin product Jordan Lovett was flying all over the field during Tuesday’s spring practice that was open to the media. That’s exactly why White believes he will contribute this fall.

“He plays 100 miles an hour, which I love. He’s a reckless abandoned type player. If you blitz him, he might be lower than the linebackers when it’s blitz time. And you know what? I’d rather that and then pull off, rather than be late and slow. When he goes, he goes, right, wrong or indifferent. We talked about that early in camp. I said, ‘Listen, I’d rather you play fast and we can make corrections.’ That’s the piece right now, it’s the correction piece and he’ll get that,” White said.

“Every practice he’s grown. Today we had some red zone. Things happen fast down in the red zone, so his head was spinning a little bit down there. You can see the older guys are calmer. They can pass things off quicker. For the younger guys, bodies fly fast and they end up freezing and not doing anything. There’s a lot of room for growth, every area for him. He is very much a guy that I expect to see in the fall helping us and making some plays. It doesn’t matter what position you are, you cannot play every single down. So you’ve gotta have depth, you’ve gotta rotate. I can absolutely see him being in that safety rotation.”

Rogers has Matured

I vividly remember noticing a difference in Marquan McCall when he took the podium during 2021 spring practice. He was a different dude once Quinton Bohanna departed. Once the job was handed to him, McCall seemingly grew up overnight. There’s been a similar transformation for Justin Rogers. The only difference is that he is not carrying the load alone at nose guard. Josaih Hayes is providing some help too.

“Justin, from a maturity standpoint has taken a step, much like Marquan’s growth,” said White. “I’m expecting him to take the next step, to give us even more in the pass rush, to make plays when he has an opportunity in the backfield. He’s probably the first to admit — everybody remembers the misses — the plays in the backfield that he could’ve made in the past. Now it’s going to be expected that he makes those and we’re going to need him to make those. But he’s had a good spring camp thus far and it’s great to have two of him in Josaih too. They push each other, they help each other and we know just like Q and Marquan needed each other, those two need each other.”

Spring Practice Conversations

In addition to conversations with White, we also spoke with cornerback Carrington Valentine and defensive end Tre’vonn Rybka, who’s expected to replace Josh Paschal this fall. See those conversations in full below, direct from the KSR YouTube Channel.