Kentucky's Defense "Not Afraid" of No. 3 Tennessee
By now, you've heard it all when it comes to No. 3 Tennessee's offense.
Head coach Josh Heupel has the Volunteers moving at light speed. Quarterback Hendon Hooker is a candidate for the Heisman. Wide receiver Jaylin Hyatt is cooking every defensive back in sight.
As Kentucky offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello put it, the Vols are "a different animal."
Luckily for Scangarello, stopping Hooker and Co on Saturday night in Knoxville is not his job. Enter defensive coordinator Brad White:
“It’s going to be like a heavyweight bout. There’s going to be a punch and a punch, and it’s just going to keep going back and forth," White said following UK's practice on Wednesday. At the end of the day, we’re just gonna have to punch until the end and see what happens.”
Going punch for punch with an offense averaging 50.1 points-per-game maybe isn't the best philosophy, but the Wildcats are likely the sturdiest defense that'll enter Neyland Stadium all year.
Over 100,000 strong will be belting Rocky Top come the primetime kickoff, but Kentucky is no stranger to a hostile environment. In week two, the Cats fought back to take down Florida 26-16 in The Swamp. Three weeks later, UK was a fumble away from defeating Ole Miss in Oxford.
The Wildcats were underdogs in both of those contests. They'll enter Knoxville around a 12.5-point underdog, but frankly, they wouldn't want it any other way. The Kentucky program has made a living off of being counted out, so Saturday won't be any different.
“We’re not thinking about anything other than being the best versions of ourselves,” White said. “We know that we’ve gone into tough environments. We know that when we went down to Florida not many people were counting us as a defense that could hang with them much. So yeah, I think there’s a little bit of a chip."
"We're very excited to take on this challenge of a good offensive team," linebacker Jordan Wright said. "Just got to be humble, locked in on film and respecting our game and also their game too, knowing we can play with them, boys."
Handling the firepower that comes from Heupel's offense is almost too big of a challenge for any defense. You have to acknowledge that the Vols are going to burn you for a couple of big plays through four quarters, there's no way around it.
In order to try and limit some of those chunk plays, the Cats will need to get pressure on Hooker when he drops back to pass.
"You need to be able to affect the quarterback. Some of these routes are deeper developing routes, and it takes a little bit of time. They're going to need to affect that pocket," White said. "If it's just a clean pocket where it turns into a seven-on-seven game, I don't know if there's any secondary in the country that can just sort of sit there and hang with that."
That's easier said than done for Kentucky, however. The Cats have just nine sacks on the year, and not a single defender has been able to notch more than one through the first seven games of the season. That might have to change if Kentucky wants to give its offense a chance to win the game on Saturday.
"What Hooker's done so well is create plays sort of off schedule," White said. "His scrambles have created some really big momentum shifters. And so they first have to do a good job of understanding where he is in the pocket and how he moves around."
Kentucky has held its last 11 opponents to 24 points or fewer, going 9-2 in that time. They've allowed 30 or fewer points in 53 of its last 59 games. Tennessee however, has scored 30 points in 10 straight games, which doesn't bode well for Mark Stoops led teams, as the Cats are 7-32 under the 10th-year head coach when allowing more than 30 points.
It's going to be a battle of strengths inside Neyland Stadium. The Wildcats understand the test that awaits, and they know how challenging it will be to get back to Lexington with what would be the biggest win of the Stoops era.
As always, Kentucky will be ready to step up to the challenge:
“They understand the task that we have ahead of them, but they are not afraid," White said. "They’re going to come out, and they’re going to play fast. We’ll see what happens from there.”
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