For the first time this spring, Kentucky played tackle football. The ninth spring practice included a live scrimmage with about 30 snaps of 11-on-11. They also had some competitive one-on-ones and a two-minute drill in what football coaches describe as \u201cthud.\u201d Pads get popped, but no one is taken to the ground. <\/p>\n
\u201cI really liked the effort and the energy out there,\u201d head coach Will Stein said<\/a> after Saturday\u2019s scrimmage. \u201cWe\u2019re obviously nowhere near where we need to be, but I do feel like our guys have improved since day one, and we have some really good football players.\u201d <\/p>\n The Kentucky head coach noted that they kept things pretty vanilla. He didn\u2019t want to make the players think too much, just play football. It sounds like the defense got after it. <\/p>\n \u201cI think Jay (Bateman)<\/a>\u2018s got a great grip on that side, allowing these guys to go rush and affect the quarterback, which Jay is used to doing. I saw some PBUs, saw some sacks. There was some ball-in-jeopardy plays by our quarterbacks that would have probably been sack fumbles, which we obviously don\u2019t want on offense, but on defense, it was really good to see and think those guys are understanding the scheme,\u201d said Stein. <\/p>\n Balancing Fine Line of Physicality at RB <\/p>\n This is the first scrimmage of three this spring. Stein wanted to see physicality, but you can\u2019t overdo it too early. <\/p>\n \u201cYou have to callous your body for contact, and if you just wait till the fall, I believe it\u2019s too late. The best teams I\u2019ve been a part of have been physical, and practices are physical, but there is a fine line,\u201d said Stein. <\/p>\n That\u2019s why two running backs, CJ Baxter<\/a> and Jovantae Barnes<\/a>, are not participating in contact portions of practice. Wide receiver Nic Anderson<\/a> was also held out. The three have played a lot of football in between injuries. Stein has a good feel of what he\u2019s going to get from them in the fall, so Kentucky isn\u2019t going to put them in a situation to potentially get injured this spring. They\u2019ve turned to Jason Patterson<\/a> and safety Martels Carter<\/a> to tote the rock out of the backfield. Will Carter move to running back full-time? That\u2019s a decision for a later date. <\/p>\n \u201cI think once the season gets here, we\u2019ll really kind of settle in. Right now it\u2019s, I want him to be comfortable coming to work every single day and still having the opportunity on both sides of the ball. But I think he sees like I see, he\u2019s got a natural knack to play running back, so he\u2019s not shying away from it,\u201d said Stein. <\/p>\n Hear more of what the Kentucky head coach had to say after the Wildcats wrapped up week No. 3 of spring practice. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n More Kentucky News and Views on the KSR YouTube Channel<\/p>\n Kentucky Sports Radio has expanded its coverage of the Wildcats in the most ridiculous manner possible on our YouTube Channel. Here you will be able to find interviews with coaches and players, as well as commentary from the KSR crew. From Rapid Reactions following big events to our lengthy lineup of live shows, subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel<\/a> to stay up to date on everything happening around the Big Blue Nation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time this spring, Kentucky played tackle football. The ninth spring practice included a live scrimmage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[94369,7,78906,95277,82232,9392],"class_list":{"0":"post-854011","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-cj-baxter-23-edgewater","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-jason-patterson-24-sneads","11":"tag-jovantae-barnes-22-desert-pines","12":"tag-martels-carter-25-paducah-tilghman","13":"tag-nic-anderson-22-katy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116348686950432262","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}