LEXINGTON, Ky. – As a young defensive backs coach at the University of Miami, Mark Stoops shocked a reporter with his bravado about his 2002 secondary.
The Hurricanes were coming off a national championship season but had lost their entire starting secondary. The group included first-round picks Phillip Buchanon, Ed Reed and Mike Rumph and has been ranked among the best secondaries in college football history.
Still, Stoops was confident his 2002 squad would have little trouble.
“I said, ‘We’ll be better,’” Stoops told The Courier-Journal in a one-on-one interview before camp. “They thought this is a young, cocky a-hole. I said, ‘No, we will be.’”
For Stoops, despite losing so much talent the equation was simple.
“The whole D-line was back,” Stoops said. “That secondary was going to be better, because I knew how talented we were going to be up front on the defensive line. The best pass defense in the world is when that quarterback is running around or is on his back.”
Stoops’ players backed up that confidence, leading the country in passing defense (119.7 yards per game) in 2002. A front seven that included five 2003 NFL Draft picks, including two first-rounders, played its part in accentuating that strength.
Now with Stoops’ Kentucky team preparing for a 2016 season in which the secondary has been anointed the strength of the defense, how the Wildcats’ front seven plays may again say much about the ultimate success of a talented group of defensive backs.
“100 percent, we’ve got have success up front,” UK defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale said. “If we can’t stop the run even with the secondary fits and we can’t get to the quarterback, it doesn’t matter how good your DBs are and vice versa. If we can’t stop people from catching the ball, it doesn’t matter how much pressure we put on the quarterback.”
Kentucky ranked 28th nationally in passing defense last season (198.1 yards per game) but a defense that ranked 97th nationally in rushing defense (196.08 yards per game) and 109th in sacks (17) rarely forced opponents into difficult passing situations.
The Wildcats relied heavily on freshman defensive backs Chris Westry, Derrick Baity, Mike Edwards and Darius West in 2015. All those players return this fall, though West has been lost to a season-ending knee injury.
Expectations for the group remain high with touted freshman cornerbacks Jordan Griffin and Davonte Robinson joining a secondary that also includes senior nickel back/safety Blake McClain, senior cornerback J.D. Harmon and junior nickel back Kendall Randolph.
“I feel like we have some superstars in the making at that position,” Stoops said at SEC Media Days in July.
“They’re currently the strength of our defense,” defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot said later that month. “Fortunately they were able to get a year under their belts so now they have a little bit of experience to go with that talent. I’m very excited to watch them play this fall.”
After a summer of praise from coaches, UK’s defensive backs are taking pride in living up to that hype.
“We said that all summer we want our secondary to be the new “DB U,” the best secondary in the SEC,” McClain said. “That starts in practice every day.”
But those same defensive backs know without help from the defensive line and linebackers their talent and depth may not reach its full potential.
UK returns just one full-time starter in the front seven. Even as the coaching staff has grown more comfortable with its projected starters at the positions, they have acknowledged depth remains a concern.
“We need them,” McClain said. “If they don’t get pressure the quarterback is going to sit there and have all day, and we don’t want that with the quarterbacks we have in the SEC.”
McClain is confident the UK front seven has put in the work during preseason camp to carry its own weight on the defense this fall. He singled out junior defensive end Alvonte Bell, sophomore defensive tackle Adrian Middleton and sophomore outside linebackers Denzil Ware, Josh Allen and Kobie Walker as defenders who have helped boost UK’s pass rush in camp.
“Our guys will get better at rushing the passer and putting some pressure on them,” Stoops said. “We find ways to create some pressure, and our secondary needs to hold up for a good bit.”
UK’s defenders have fostered a friendly competition during camp to argue which position group is better.
Ware and his fellow linebackers like to shout “LB U” at the defensive backs, who reply with their cries of “DB U.” Still, the players say they realize it will take a group effort to succeed this fall.
“We won’t get pass breakups if they don’t get pressure up front,” Randolph said. “If we don’t defend in the back end then everybody is in trouble.
“We all play equal roles on the defense, so just as we hold ourselves accountable within our position groups we do the same with other position groups while respecting that we know they have their certain stuff that they do by themselves and we have our stuff that we do by ourselves. At the end of the day we’re all still one defense. We have to be in tune with each other.”
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