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UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 2, 2019

Brad White

Lexington, Kentucky

BRAD WHITE: Back in 2014 and 2013, led the NFL in sacks, had 19 and a half. Really excited about him coming back. He had an injury in the off-season. So in 2014 we had to figure out a way to still get pressure.

We ended up having more sacks in 2014 than we did in 2013, but it wasn't one guy having them. We had it sort of dispersed throughout the D. Led the team in sacks that year, his number was six and a half. You can do the math. But we had five, six, seven guys that had three-plus sacks.

We tried to bring it from everywhere, cause a little bit of confusion. We'll see what we can do here to have sort of those same results.

Q. You can't replace Josh Allen, but how do you start to fill in maybe with two or three guys to get that pass-rush to help out younger defensive backs?
BRAD WHITE: That's a great question. You can't replace Josh. Everybody knows that. Everybody knows Josh was a special talent, one of those generational-type players.

What we have to do now is find the next one. It's find the next guy that's going to elevate his game. The thing that made Josh so good, he went from seven sacks, seven sacks, to 17. You have a guy like Jamar Watson, Boom, he had three his freshman year, five last year, and hopefully we can continue to push that number. That's a guy we're going to lean heavily on.

Getting Josh Paschal back, that's going to be huge. I'm really looking forward to seeing our interior pass-rush really push their sack numbers and their hurries and pressures. We're going to try to effect a lot with those guys.

When you have T.J. Carter, Calvin Taylor, Q, you bring in a Looney, a Phil Hoskins, I mean, we should be able to have some success interiorly. Then when I look out there and see guys like Kash and Square and Oats and Jaymon, inside linebackers that can blitz, cause all kinds of issues.

A lot of times those inside linebackers are going to be matched up on runningbacks. Those are one-on-one situations we anticipate winning and we need to win if we're going to be successful.

We're going to put some weight on their shoulders to go win those one-on-ones. Then we'll see who elevates. Obviously we'd love to do as much four-man rush in coverage to protect the back end, but there are going to be downs they just have to step up, elevate.

We talk about it all the time on defense. Somebody on every down has to wear the hat. They're going to have the tough down. What you want to do is you want to put the tough down more often than not on the guys that are experienced or that can wear that hat.

But there's going to be times within a game that everybody, no matter how young you are, no matter how experienced you are, you're going to have to wear the hat on that down and rise to the occasion.

Q. What did you like about the three outside linebackers you signed?
BRAD WHITE: I'm really, really excited about the young guys that we have, the three from Louisville. What we're actually going to do, Shawn'Kel is going to start inside. We'll have Casey and Weaver on the outside. We have K. D. McDaniel who we also signed who is going to be outside as well. We have some really young talent that I'm excited to see.

Jared obviously is a step ahead coming in spring so he knows the terminology a little bit better. It will be a little bit cleaner early. But we're going to see what those guys can do. We're going to put the best 11 on the field. If it's a freshman, if it's a senior, if you're one of best 11, you know what to do in that situation, in that package, you're going to be on the field. If you don't, if you're a 50/50 guy, if you know it sometimes, don't know it others, for me knowledge is power. The guys that know it are going to be the guys that play.

But we have to do a good job as a coaching staff to make sure we don't overwhelm them. You give them a package that they can play fast, then let their athletic ability show.

Q. What did you see from Devonshire in the recruiting process, what can he do for you in the secondary?
BRAD WHITE: He has terrific speed. He was a sprint champion there in the state of Pennsylvania. He's got smooth hips. He's a great athlete. So he's going to be another one of those guys, a young guy, he's going to be thrown in the fire, we'll see what he can do.

In that secondary, we don't know who is going to be the starter. I can't tell you right now, come August 31st, who is going to be running out there. There are some guys as you start the pre-season, you have to have a depth chart. It's in pencil. That could change daily. It could change weekly. It can change as the scrimmages come.

When the lights go on, it's one thing to do it in practice, it's another thing to do it in a scrimmage because it's a heightened sense of urgency. At the end of the day, when it goes to game time, it's an entirely different level.

You may see throughout the season some things get shuffled around. We'll find the best 11. It may not be the same 11 in every personnel group. We're going to find in the right situation.

We've talked to our guys all the time, find a spot, find a role on this team. Carve it out, find your niche, then become a master at that role. If you become a master at that role, you gain confidence in your teammates and coaching staff, you'll see your role expand.

Q. Through your experience, what do you do to take the pressure off of a group that is going to be really inexperienced?
BRAD WHITE: We're going to have to do a great job of keeping it simple for us but complex for an offense. We need them to have to go through checks, make them work without putting a lot on our guys' plates.

We'll be multiple in some regards that way. I'll ask older guys to do the disguise part, let the younger guys be a little bid more stagnant. The older guys right now, we know we've got a good, experienced D-line. We know we have inside backers. Boogs was a full-time starter last year, played a significant amount as a redshirt freshman. Those guys have to carry a little bit more during a down, whether it's communication, whether it's disguise, and let the younger guys settle in.

Once they get comfortable, then we can start expanding their package.

Q. What are your expectations from Mo?
BRAD WHITE: With the injury to Davonte, Mo's role sort of I say increased, but he's going to have to be a person right now that as he goes through this camp, he's a guy that needs to be ready to go in the game.

Again, I'm excited about what Yusuf can do. He had a great spring. But right now at that safety spot, we're still looking at bodies. Mo is going to be that guy that is getting some reps with the second team. You're one injury away. He's got to be able to learn the defense. It was nice to get him again, kind of like Jared Casey, in the spring. This won't be all new when he steps on the field this afternoon. Hopefully things slow down a little bit quicker for him than some others.

You saw it in the spring, that he's not afraid to hit. He's a guy that will come down, he'll strike you. He's a really good tackler. It's just knowing what to do, where to be, what checks to make. We ask our safeties to handle quite a bit in terms of communication.

We'll have to pick that up.

Q. Your impact on the outside pass-rush with Josh and Boogie, talk about this off-season, how has your involvement with the interior defensive line increased? Have you been more hands on involved?
BRAD WHITE: In terms of the interaction, yes. When you step up to the coordinator role, you get to interact with all the position groups more than just yours, which is always a fun experience, especially for me. I like getting to know all of them on a personal level.

But in terms of the pass-rush, Coach LeBlanc does a great job with those guys. We will work a little bit more as a unit. When it gets into those third down situations, maybe there's a little bit more gel there in the pass where it was a little bit more two distinct units. Outside and inside, we're going to have a collective pass-rush idea. Coach does a great job with those guys.

You saw Calvin Taylor's emergence last year. T.J. Carter has positioned himself to have one of those breakout years. When we let those guys get used to each other, pass-rush together, they're going to go through individual drills together on third down days.

It's hard, you never really have enough individual. I know when I first got here, Coach Stoops touched on it, the outside backers in the 3-4 defense, there's so much that they have to do in terms of they have to be able to rush, they have to be able to set edges, cover. It gets hard to get it all in. You need to try to take as much individual time as you can get with those guys.

But we're not going to do it at the sacrifice of gelling that front four unit. We will work together quite a bit, especially right now, then when we get into season or third down days, so when we get to third down, that's where we need to win. We have to win and be efficient on third down.

I know everybody talks about it, Coach Gran probably talked about it offensively being efficient. If we can eliminate long drives, long drives usually happen because they've converted on one or two or three third down situations. If we can get off the field there, I think we'll be in much better shape this year.

Q. Steve Young said at the NFL level the 3-4 is the toughest defense to prepare for. He's a pretty smart guy. How difficult is it to play that proficiently at the college level?
BRAD WHITE: I think it is one of those defenses that gives offenses problems because you can basically create three different defenses at once, where most teams, if you're a 4-3 defense, an over defense or an under defense. We won't get into the nitty-gritty of that.

But an offense knows where you're going to be, they can create their leverage points, double-teams. When you're in an odd front defense, like a 3-4, we play three up front, we can stay in that situation which creates its own problems for offenses, or we can create under and over very quickly.

From an offensive standpoint, it makes it hard to target in the run game. It causes some confusion for a quarterback in terms of which way are they coming, because we're so balanced formationally. It's harder to identify than if you were in a 4-3 defense.

But with that, why doesn't everybody run a 3-4? Again, to the point about the outside backers, it takes that much more teaching for those guys because you're going to put a lot on their plate, a lot on their interior D-linemen.

You can see, all the credit goes to our strength and conditioning staff in terms of we look the part to play those four in our defense. You have to be big, strong, rugged. It's hot, it's steamy in there every down. That's not for everybody.

You've got to find three of those guys. If you're in a 4-3, you have to find two guys that can play interiorly, two D ends. You're playing in the city or you're playing in the suburbs. We have to have three playing in the city in a 3-4 defense.

I tell the outside backers all the time, Hey, you have the good life out there, you got all kinds of space, time, the tackle will set (smiling).

Those guys in our 3-4, our two and our nose, things happen quick. They're playing against big bodies, especially in this league. We talk about you have to win up front in this league.

I feel strongly about what Coach LeBlanc has done with this group. They've worked hard this off-season. We're going to rely on those guys heavily.

Thank you.

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