By Joshua Huff

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Allow me, for a brief moment, to play the role of devil’s advocate in regards to UK football.

The Cats had an exceptional game this past Saturday, lighting up the highly outmatched University of Tennessee at Martin, 59-14.

But despite all the great things we saw from the young guys and skill players, I am worried about a defensive trend I saw developing during the course of the game.

UT-Martin ran for almost 200 yards on a UK defense that is supposed to be strong up front and iffy in the secondary.  Surprisingly, the secondary had an exceptional game. JUCO transfer junior A.J. Stamps was the defensive player of the game, destroying running backs and snagging a one-handed interception. Sophomore corner J.D. Harmon had several pass breakups and junior corner Fred Tiller notched the second interception of the game for the Cats. But the defensive line struggled throughout the game to pressure UT-Martin’s quarterbacks and to contain senior running back Abou Toure and junior running back Trent Garland.

Although UK freshman defensive tackle Regie Meant had a heck of a coming out party with two sacks, anybody watching the game could see that each of the Skyhawks’ drives was led by the running game. UT-Martin gashed UK’s defense, buckling the line but fortunately never really breaking it, excluding Garland’s singular 22-yard run.

So my main issue here is that if a team such as UT-Martin, with very average running backs, can mount a successful running attack against UK, how will the Cats hold up against the likes of Todd Gurley, who carried Georgia on his back against Clemson with his 293 all-purpose yards Saturday, or LSU’s combo of Kenny Hilliard and Leonard Fournette?

Yes, UK only allowed 3.9 yards per carry on 47 attempts, but I’ll say it again, UT-Martin had a below average run game. Once the Cats start playing with the big boys of the SEC, they will have to contend with the likes of Georgia (8 yards per carry) and Missouri (5.5 yards per carry). UK’s numbers against UT-Martin would have been considerably inflated had the competition been better.

However, the sample size of data is small–just one game. The defense as a whole did great against an inferior opponent.

But just ponder this for a moment: if the defensive line continues to buckle like it did, how much more will it take for it to break?