Kentucky football took care of business on Saturday, defeating Vanderbilt 34-17 to improve to a 7-1 record heading into the bye week. This was the first time Kentucky has went undefeated in the month of October since 1977. The magical season continues as Will Stein now has Kentucky ranked 9th in the country and they will be on the initial College Football Playoff ranking which releases next week before they travel to Knoxville. We previewed Kentucky's offense, now we will look into the defense which has really improved over the last month of play.
In this game against Vanderbilt, we really saw a ton of what we expected when Jay Bateman was hired as defensive coordinator. Kentucky seems to be ramping up the disguised coverages the deeper we get
into the season, we saw a ton of that against the Commodores as well as more simulated and creeper pressure looks. This group is led by the veteran safety duo of Ty Bryant and Jordan Castell, so expect a lot more of these disguised coverage rotations. Bateman has done a phenomenal job developing this unit throughout the season, and they improved in a ton of areas in October compared to what they put on film in September.
The one area in particular was the run defense struggles early in the season. Although a lot of those were against mobile quarterbacks rather than traditional run game, we have seen this front seven improve in this area, which probably has a lot to do with the inexperienced linebackers getting more reps. We saw this play out on Saturday, as Kentucky held Vanderbilt to 15 yards rushing on 17 rushing attempts. That was Kentucky's lowest rushing yards allowed since 1996.
Kentucky allowed 122 rushing yards per game in the month of September, which ranked 60th among all FBS teams. That number improved to 104 rushing yards per game in the month of October, which ranked 20th among all FBS teams and first in the SEC. This is an extremely significant improvement considering what Kentucky faces down the stretch. Tennessee has the SEC's leading rusher DeSean Bishop, Florida has a dynamic power back in Jadan Baugh, Missouri has Jamal Roberts and could get Ahmad Hardy back as well; all three of those guys are top 15 in the FBS in rushing yards.
We saw a ton of players step up in this game defensively. Mi'Quise Humphrey-Grace continues to be the best player on the Wildcats defensive line, and we keep seeing big plays from Jamarrion "Chops" Harkless. Ty Bryant got yet another interception, as he read Jared Curtis' eyes to jump in front of a late throw. Ty Bryant and Jordan Castell each have four interceptions on the season and have really led the way for Kentucky's dominance in winning the turnover margin.
I believe the unsung heroes of this defense is the corner group, slot corner Aaron Gates and the outside corners Terhyon Nichols and Hasaan Sykes. Nichols and Sykes have been sticky in coverage while not allowing a lot of explosives on the outside, they also are really great tacklers for the position. Aaron Gates has maybe had his two best games of the season in the last two weeks. Gates had a pass breakup in this game as well as a sack on a pressure look off the edge.
This defense is improving every week, they got a lot better in the month of October and they need to do the same in a massive November. Jay Bateman is ramping up the creativity with his disguised coverage rotations and pressure looks. The scheme we were promised when the hire was made is showing up and his defense is making a ton of havoc plays. I would highly recommend checking out Coach Geoff Collins breakdown video of Coach Bateman's scheme from the Vanderbilt game on YouTube.
This article originally appeared on UK Wildcats Wire: Kentucky defense review: Jay Bateman's scheme showed up in big way
