PFF ranks Jordan Castell among SEC's highest-graded returning safeties

Nah. Our defense played the way they were coached. We made some staff changes and hopefully that helps, a lot. It should. The real question we should have is, WTH were our overseers seeing in practices that would make them think we were on track and ready for football games. If I heard rumors that Napier and his DC were riding, even deriding, their position coaches to do better, to get more, to not cheat our players, I would feel better. But as far as we know, our upper staff thought we were practicing the way an SEC team needs to.

 

Well, they fired them so not so much and we were still not very talented either way.

 

Well, our players could be lying, or they could be telling the truth when they say tackling is a focus this fall but was not last season. And if you knew they are telling the truth, would that be on the two fired coaches or the guys still here?

 

Maybe embellished a bit? At the practice I attended last year they ran tacking drills and ran a drill where they tried to “peanut punch” the ball out.

 

Unanswerable questions are a rhetorical device that generally tend to create more heat than light. I'm going to sit this one out.

 

That's a formula for being blackballed as the head coach no one will work for, deriding assistants. You push them to perform and if they don't, they get forced out and have to prove themselves again elsewhere. Long term assistants and former coordinators don't want that.

 

Put it in context. Two true freshmen started at safety. No freshman should be starting at that position. CB and receiver is fine. They had way too much to learn.

 

This one has been nagging at me.

They HAVE to be.

Along with dearth of injuries and Sophomore jumps.

 

Extremely cautious optimism, thy name is Gator fan in '24.

 

I hear ya Rick, but here's a fact, not an educated guess.
Hairston had 10 tackles against us last year (8 were solo).
In 2023, Kentucky had the league's No. 2-ranked run defense.
Deone Walker and Maxwell Hairston return to give UK a pair of future NFL talents.
Dumas-Johnson is a highly rated transfer from Georgia with good stats.