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Years of experience have shown Kentucky special teams coach Bradley Dale Peveto how special teams can change momentum, field position or scoring to decide who wins and loses games.
That’s why he wants the Krazy Cats — the name he has given UK’s special teams — to be daring at times this season .
“We are going to do a lot of neat things. Our guys have bought in and it is going to be a lot fun and a fun thing to coach,” said Peveto.
However, Peveto knows it will be head coach Mark Stoops, not him, that decides when the right time to gamble or use a trick play will be.
“Everything goes through the head coach. When it comes to things that are chances and whether you do a fake or do reverse, that is always the head coach’s call,” Peveto said. “Making a big play or two can make a huge difference in a game. Our goal is to make big plays in special teams.”
He’s been holding an “open competition” to see who will return punts and kickoffs, an area that has not produced many special plays for UK since Randall Cobb and Derrick Locke last played in 2010.
“Demarco Robinson has looked very good for us and I think he is an extremely good returner, but we are looking at a lot of guys. (Junior college transfer) Javess Blue is one of those guys. But we are giving a lot of guys a chance to do it,” Peveto said. “You want the best players out there. If that is one guy, three guys, that is what we go with. At the same time, you have to have depth. You can’t say this guy is our guy and then all of a sudden he is hurt and you have no backups. You have to have plan for that.”
He’s also having to plan for who he will be playing at safety when the season opens Aug. 31 against Western Kentucky. He wouldn’t rule out a freshman starting at any position.
“There is no doubt a freshman could start. We are counting on them. They started at the bottom of the depth chart, but we have guys that are pushing some guys and that is what you want,” Peveto said. “You want to always recruit better than you have got. I think we have got good players, but we have young guys that can compete at a lot of positions and that’s what we want.
“If they can’t beat a guy out, then you still want them to push him. You want that guy who is a starter to say this guy is chomping on my heels. Competition makes us all better.”
He thinks the “positive vibes” Stoops gives his staff and players does the same thing.
“He does a great job with leadership and his staff. The positiveness and plan is all contagious and it bleeds down from him to the staff to our players to our recruits,” Peveto said. “Confidence is a beautiful thing. Respect is a beautiful thing. Admiration and passion, they are contagious, beautiful things. Without them, it is hard to win and have a great team. The best teams win championships, not the best players.”
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