Kentucky Football: Grading Stoops, the players what letter do they get?
. . DEFENSE . A.
Kentucky defense continued to be Stoops’ bread and butter.
Kentucky defense will probably go down as the highest-graded field unit in 2020. The Kentucky defense garnered an A on paper, and an A for effort as well. Coming into 2020 doubt swirled around Kentucky’s defense especially its secondary. The defense took that doubt and crushed it, and the secondary intercepted it on the way there.
The Kentucky secondary came up with 16 interceptions in an all-SEC schedule with Kelvin Joseph leading the way with four and followed by Yusuf Corker with two. That means that 10 other Wildcats came away with a pick for a well-rounded effort.
.@YCorker closing the season strong!
— Kentucky Football (@UKFootball) January 4, 2021
Our junior safety picked off this pass in the fourth quarter of the @taxslayerbowl, his second of the season, occurring in consecutive games pic.twitter.com/YSrKXsVDW3
Overall the defense finished in the top five in the SEC, only allowing 387 yards per game in total yardage. Not a bad place to be in a league with robust defenses all throughout. Where Kentucky really shined was pass defense, only allowing 220 yards per game through the air which ranked #1 in the whole SEC… really makes you think the secondary was reading what the media was printing. Kentucky also finished in the top five in the conference in scoring defense only allowing a hair under 27 points per game.
There wasn’t one player on the defense that wasn’t an intricate part of its success. When many wondered who would step in after 2019, the Kentucky defense got to work in a big way. Kentucky intercepted 16 passes which were good enough to tie for third in the nation. Kentucky also ranked 14th nationally in turnover margin at 10.
With Juniors Josh Paschal, DeAndre Square, and Darian Kinnard having announced their return the Kentucky defense looks to be a formidable unit again in 2021, even without knowing completely what it will look like.
Defensive football isn’t exciting to watch but it’s been a mainstay on Mark Stoops’ menu since he walked through the door. I think Stoops’ main focus will always be defense, so there isn’t much need to worry. The future for Kentucky defense is a bright one.