Mondays with Bobby, featuring Mitchell Henry

Western Kentucky defensive coordinator Nick Holt said Wednesday that senior safety Kiante Young will be out Saturday (undisclosed injury). Young, not a starter, but the team’s fifth defensive back in nickel packages, has 100 career solo tackles, 61 career assists and three career interceptions in 34 games.

Comments from Holt, Andrew Jackson and Bryan Shorter and Xavius Boyd.

Nick Holt

 UK’s two QBs: “I think we gotta deal with it. It’s a concern. Both guys are very capable. They both throw the ball well. We’re preparing for both and we’ll just see how that goes and there’s nothing we can really do about it. It’s out of our control, whoever plays, whoever’s out there.”

    Andrew Jackson: “When you have a good player like Andrew, obviously he’s key. But I think more so than one person, I think all of us have to play well. I think when we all play well, it just  makes some of those other good players do their job even better.

“He needs to set the tempo for our defense as well as some of the older kids who have played a lot of football. There’s a couple other ones that gotta do a nice job of getting kids lined up in the first game and having that little calming presences in the huddle.

“He’s huge – but everybody’s huge. Whoever’s out there is gotta play well.”

    Can he play in the NFL? “He just needs to focus on one game at a time and everything takes care of itself. He practices well everyday and continues to get better – which he has. His habits have really improved and he’ll have the chance to maybe make a living at this game.

“That’s way down the line. He needs to play really well against Kentucky.”

    UK offensive personnel: “There’s a lot of unknowns. We haven’t really seen them on film other than watching them last year on some tape. But that was some different schemes and a different coaching staff. They have some new kids they’ve recruited and they got some new skill guy, some new offensive linemen – we’ve watched ‘em on film last year, but it’s a whole different staff and I’m sure they’re gonna look a lot different and come out and be ready to go.

“They have a heckuva staff and those guys will have them ready to play.”

    Biggest concern: “The biggest concern is really the unknown of us being in the fire with these kids the first time. I’m sure they need to trust the coaches and the coaches need to trust the kids. That’s the biggest concern.

“Just getting out there and relaxing and doing what we’re coached to do. And kids not making things up and I think when it comes down to it, if we can do that, I know we’ll play hard and if we get some turnovers I think we’ll be OK.

“I think we need to do a good job of eliminating the clutter for our kids and not making things to difficult for them because I know this offense, just watching them and their history, they do a lot of fast-paced stuff. We gotta get our kids lined up and their alignments correct and their eyes on their keys so they can play.

“It’s our job as coaches to get in and out of the huddle so we can get lined up.”

 WKU secondary: “Hopefully that’s an advantage. But those guys have had a lot of reps and they enough kids coming back that have played in the games. A lot of their receivers are back and a couple of their tight ends have played a lot of football, and their running back.

“I’m not sure if that’s a factor. I’m glad we do have some experience back there, although we’re missing a really good player (Kiante Young) in our strong safety who’s out for a little bit. We’ll see how that goes.

“Everybody’s indicating that our secondary’s really experienced, we’ll see how that goes.”

Bryan Shorter

    Defensive line: “We’re working hard. Been a long summer, been grinding, so I feel like we’re pretty much ready.”

    UK’s two QBs: “We just been taught to be aware of who is in the game. When Whitlow’s in the game, gotta be aware of the scramble, and stuff like that, and be aware of quarterback read plays as opposed to when the other quarterback’s in.”

    SEC O-line: “We always wanna prove ourselves every week.”

Andrew Jackson

    How far have you come? “I think about it all the time, I made it this far. Senior year, ready to get back out there and do what we do.”

 Areas you’ve improved: “Mostly, I really had to focus on my weight, really, was kind of messing with me a little bit. But I worked all summer to get back down to 255, around that area for my pass coverage. I’m ready for this season.

“I was too big, really. I had muscle, it was just too much. I had to lean up a little bit and get right.”

    NFL: “I thought about it, but that’s just motivation to keep me going so I know what I’m working for to eventually have a good season and be on my way, hopefully.”

    Playing UK: “We had a long fall camp playing against ourselves. But I ain’t worried about UK. I don’t even care nothing about ‘em. We gonna handle them Saturday, so ya’ll just be ready for that.”

    Kentucky’s unknowns: “We went over everything from where their coaches came from. We just gotta know everything so just in case they do try to come out and try to run something else, we already know it – we went over it. Nothing will be new. We basically went over everything that they possibly could try to do.”

    2012 irrelevant? “Yeah, it really is irrelevant because they got a new coach that’s gonna try to come around and trick yah and four-wide stuff, try to trick us up. But we’re just gonna hit ‘em in the mouth and get it over with.”

Xavius Boyd

    Andrew Jackson: “It’s a honor. He’s been here four years, he’s got great energy, he’s always moving around. Playing with him, I know if I out-tackle him, I’ll be one of the top linebackers in the nation just like he is.”

    UK’s offense: “It’s going to be a good challenge. They run the spread. Obviously a lot of teams last year ran the spread that we played against. It’s going to be quick tempo. It’ll be a good challenge all around.”

Filed under: Football, Talkin’ bout the Tops