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Aug. 20 Scrimmage Report | Defensive depth still a concern

Mark Stoops/UKathletics

Kentucky wrapped up its second and final scrimmage of fall camp on Saturday afternoon. The reviews, as head coach Mark Stoops put it, were mixed. As expected in a scrimmage, the offense and defense both stood out at varying points.

The offense got the best of the defense in last week’s scrimmage, but the defense opened the day with a three and out according to Stoops. However, the offense bounced back with a 60-yard touchdown reception from sophomore receiver Kayaune Ross.

“Good throw, good route. Great protection,” offensive coordinator Eddie Gran said. “He broke some tackles. It was really, really good.”

The offense kicked a field goal on the next possession. The rest of the scrimmage notes were scattered, but here at the rest of the key takeaways from Saturday’s action:

-- There weren’t any significant injuries from the action, which is always a silver lining. Blake Bone was limited with an injury and Dorian Baker had a bit of a hamstring injury according to Stoops. Redshirt freshman outside linebacker Eli Brown had a stinger and didn’t scrimmage, but Stoops still likes his progress.

-- Defensive depth continues to be a major concern. With Brown out, Stoops said it might’ve made the backup linebackers seem more concerning than normal.

“We made it a point to put -- whether it’s the nickel packages or the speed packages, dime packages, all that -- to really look and see where we’re at with the ones because depth is an issue and we’ve got to pull twos and all that,” Stoops said. “You’re never going to go into a game playing complete twos and threes, so it’s a good thing.”

-- De’Niro Laster’s versatility has allowed him to receive reps at both inside and outside linebacker, but Stoops said he’s been practicing with the inside linebackers for the past week. Freshman Kash Daniel -- who came into fall camp third on the depth chart behind Courtney Love and Nico Firios -- will be a player who gets a long look at whether he’ll be able to help this season or not.

“Physically, he can do it,” Stoops said. “But mentally he needs to come along. But that’s the same with some of our other twos. We’ll look at that this week and we’ll make a decision, same with the defensive line.”

-- Running back Boom Williams participated in the scrimmage. Williams was held out of last week’s scrimmage, but saw limited action on Saturday.

“He got his three carries and I wanted him to get whacked,” Gran said. “I wanted him to feel it, get on the ground. He picked up a protection, which was fantastic to see that. Really everything that I needed to get done with him got done.”

-- Stoops said that quarterback Drew Barker once again was poised and made good decisions, but he did have one turnover, which has been rare for him this camp. Sophomore cornerback Derrick Baity made the interception.

“I was reading my keys,” Baity said. “As the play was developing I was playing fast. I just read the route good and had a good break and made a play on the ball to get the interception.”

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