Kentucky Sports Radio
[Moderated by Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and Tyler Thompson]
[Moderated by Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and Tyler Thompson]
Chris Low of ESPN’s SEC Blog wrote a piece on Rick Minter’s efforts to shore up a defense that was, at most times, pitiful last season. The Cats gave up 48 points to Florida, 35 points to LSU, 54 points to South Carolina, 28 points to Mississippi State and 38 points to Vanderbilt in last year’s atrocious campaign. That’s not to say there weren’t a few bright spots. In the Cats’ last two games against Georgia and Tennessee, the defense gave up a combined 26 points and forced seven turnovers. That’s production that Rick Minter hopes carries over into this year. He said to Chris Low,
“We really proved to ourselves at the end of the season, one that we could compete with anybody in the conference, and two, our scheme works if we go out and play and execute it and play with emotion,” Minter said. “I think we at least set a tone, got some foundations laid. Now, it’s all about what we do this year.”
He hopes that the team will be able to do a lot this year, especially with the number of true freshmen who saw significant minutes last season. He cited guys like Bud Dupree, Eric Dixon, Ashely Lowery and Christian Coleman as some of the experienced sophomores returning for the defense. Minter has certainly brought a new energy with his coaching style. His is a defense full of players much less heralded than their SEC counterparts. If there’s any hope for them competing, then it will have to come from the coaches.
Expectations aren’t high for this year’s Football Cats, but with now that Minter has that first year under his belt, could this be the season that our defense plays the way we expected it to play with him at the helm? Either the defense or the offense is going to have to step up in a huge way this season. otherwise, we could be in for another long, long year.
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May 14th, 2012 at 10:05 pm
When I first saw that headline I was dumbfounded. I thought they were writing about basketball. In my mind I though “you sir are a terrible person.”
It is sad to think football has gottrn that unexciting to me…..
May 14th, 2012 at 10:06 pm
UK football may not have much of a defense this year but they definitely will make up for it by not playing any offense either. Makes for a devastating combination.
May 14th, 2012 at 10:12 pm
It is hard to criticize Minter’s defense last year, when it was on the field for 80% of a game!!!! I actually thought our defense was pretty good, but never got ANY kind of remote help from our offense. Any teams defense is going to be bad when they are on the field as much as ours was last year, as it will be COMPOUNDED even more when you are playing SEC caliber teams!
May 14th, 2012 at 10:12 pm
Nothing changes the fact that Minter was linebacker coach at Indiana State when Joker picked his ole buddy to stop the high powered offenses of the SEC. We’ll see.
May 14th, 2012 at 10:12 pm
#3, UK is an SEC team.
May 14th, 2012 at 10:14 pm
blah, blah, blah. The KSR daily kick the UK football team post.
May 14th, 2012 at 10:27 pm
Please, let us have a real coach!!
May 14th, 2012 at 10:29 pm
Zero people want to read an article About football
May 14th, 2012 at 10:30 pm
#6 I agree. KSR has not wrote a positive article about Football in several months.
May 14th, 2012 at 10:31 pm
@2… Hahaaaaaah It’s funny but it’s not funny at the same time. You have me cracking up.
May 14th, 2012 at 10:32 pm
Please no more FB updates. Seriously. You’re going to ruin summer. No one cares. But don’t get me wrong, I really think Joker is a hell of a great person.
May 14th, 2012 at 10:33 pm
When I think of football, i feel like the troll in 300 who is not allowed to join Leonidas’s army. We are deformed from a structural standpoint and we simply can’t hope to compete against top 25 teams with our current limitations and lack of innnovative on-field product. I do hope the weather is nice like last year. I will thoroughly enjoy tailgating.
May 14th, 2012 at 10:44 pm
5.) I know that UK is an SEC team. I am identifying that our crappy offense suffered even more then many other teams in other conferences like the Big East, where teams do not have to play SEC caliber defenses, thus not leaving their defense on the field for 80% of a game.
May 14th, 2012 at 10:45 pm
KY Football Sucks!!!
May 14th, 2012 at 10:59 pm
God only knows,
but he is not returning his calls.
May 14th, 2012 at 11:13 pm
Unfair assessment. You can’t blame a defense for allowing points when the offense went three-and-out 90% of the time.
May 15th, 2012 at 12:07 am
Can we just save everyone a lot of time & embarrassment and just forfeit the season & fire Joker so we don’t have to watch or talk about this train wreck please !! For all the people that get pissed that KSR never talks about or never has anything good to say about UK football; we suck, we’ve always sucked, and since we have a long history of sucking the odds are we are always going to suck, get over it!! We defiantly have no hope of getting better if Frankfort doesn’t get their heads out of their asses !! To all these so called UK football fans, if you love UK football so much, donate money so UK can update the facilities.
May 15th, 2012 at 5:48 am
By reading this, I think I violated myself. Can I press charges against me?
May 15th, 2012 at 6:47 am
3 Wins this year….TOPS!!!
May 15th, 2012 at 7:33 am
Only I suck more than Joker!
May 15th, 2012 at 7:46 am
#5 UK being an SEC football team is still up for debate!
May 15th, 2012 at 7:51 am
Minter is right, they did get better at the end of the season, they only gave up 38 to Vandy. I was expecting another 54 like to SC.
May 15th, 2012 at 8:08 am
the sad thing is that Mitch belives this
May 15th, 2012 at 8:22 am
Minter is a legit coach, and the Cats’ VERY young defense did improve by leaps and bounds by the end of the season, but I’m not sure how much of it can carry over to this season considering that the two guys who did most of the tackling are gone to the pros now.
May 15th, 2012 at 8:41 am
Thanks for the suggestions you have shared here.
May 15th, 2012 at 8:47 am
I’ll say this-the offense was probably more to blame than the D last year. When you give your opponent the ball NINETY plays and your O only has half….that aint good. D will be a little younger this year, but I am really only worried about O. We improve on O it will help a ton.
May 15th, 2012 at 9:03 am
Thanks for the tips you have provided here.
May 15th, 2012 at 10:33 am
Another dumb article. What we expected? Anybody with half a brain, cannot expect a miracle, from a 1st year defensive coordinator.
May 15th, 2012 at 10:47 am
Unlike other people on this board that waste their time, I like the football updates. If you don’t want to read it, skip over it.
I think it will be interesting seeing Minter in his second year of the new defense. I believe they will be much better this year as long as the corners step up their play. The everything up the middle should be much improved.
May 15th, 2012 at 11:52 am
If Minter can recruit Cincinnati that will be a big improvement.
May 15th, 2012 at 2:48 pm
I am now being censored.