Kentucky's defense overpowered ULM last week but will face a more difficult challenge against Missouri. (Vicky Graff Photo)
As pleasing as Kentucky’s passing game production was against Louisiana Monroe, coach Mark Stoops had to be even happier with what his defense did. Kentucky had emphasized needing more pressure on the quarterback and more game-changing plays on defense this year. Against ULM, Kentucky got 14 tackles for loss and six quarterback sacks while giving up just 87 total yards in the 45-10 win.
Five different players had a sack led by two from JJ Weaver while eight players had a tackle for loss led by DeAndre Square with 3.5 while Josh Paschal, Jordan Wright, and JJ Weaver each had two.
“That’s always a starting point with me with both sides of the line of scrimmage. I’ve said that since day one. You’ve heard me say that 100 times in these press conferences. Actually, 101 now, right?” Stoops joked. “It’s a line of scrimmage game, and we’ve got to continue to get better.
“I really like the effort that they played with. We made some mistakes. We made some penalties and some things that are very aggravating. But we made them going extremely fast and playing extremely hard. It was never for a lack of effort.
“That’s one thing that was obvious when I put on that film, was the effort and our guys really trying to play aggressive and play fundamentally sound. Again, there’s many mistakes, but there’s a lot to build on.”
Stoops was asked about a lot of defensive players specifically at his press conference Monday. Here’s what he had to say:
Question: What about the play of freshman defensive lineman Octavious Oxendine?
Stoops: “Octavious did a really good job. I thought he played faster than he has in the past. He’s worked hard in the off-season. He took to the coaching. He escaped and played fast and played with great energy. I was excited about that.”
Question: What about Ole Miss transfer Jacquez Jones making his first start at linebacker after missing a lot of the preseason with an injury?
Stoops: “Jacquez, he played good. He was banged up. He missed a little bit. Some of our linebackers were a bit out of position. We have some things to correct with all the different things we did. I don’t want to use the word ‘communicate’ because then you guys will try to beat me over the head for a year. It’s normal stuff, we do a lot of things. Sometimes it’s strong hook, sometimes it’s weak hook, in the changing of personnel and formations, just cleaning up some things with some inexperienced linebackers. I’m confident that they’ll all play well and we’ll get them straightened out but we have some guys out of position that we have to get cleaned up.”
Question: Will linebacker J.J. Weaver will be on snap count again on Saturday against Missouri and his thoughts on Weaver’s rehab progress from his torn ACL?
Stoops:“I’m very pleased with J.J. No setbacks, he felt good, he’s getting confidence, and we’ll see where we go from here. We’ll see how the week goes.”
Question: How did safety Davonte Robinson play?
Stoops: “I was pleased with Davonte. He really kind of got back to where he was a couple years ago, you know with the injury. He really did a good job and we needed him to. It is a key position for us and he did some good things.”
