Finally some truth: DE Evans admits Cats backed down, took win for granted against State
November 4th, 2009 | 
Author: By LARRY VAUGHT
A year ago DeQuin Evans was playing junior college football in warm, sunny California. Today he was trying to keep warm in the rain and light sleet at the University of Kentucky.
“I am trying to get used to the weather. It’s not California weather. Everybody I talk to says this is football weather down here, so that is something I have to get used to even though California football weather is about 70 or 80 degrees. But it’s no big deal. I have bigger things to worry about,” the defensive end said.
Evans was blunt, but honest, as he reflected on UK’s 31-24 loss to Mississippi State last week and offered the first insights into what might have happened to the Kentucky defense that let State running back Anthony Dixon rip through it most of the game.
“It was real frustrating last week. That and the South Carolina game were probably the two hardest games in my life to take a loss like that. There is nothing we can about it now. We have to have a short term memory and move on,” Evans said.
“Once we have a team down, we have to keep our foot on their throat. We can’t let them get these breakaway huge runs and stuff like that. We have to keep playing assignment football and not think that we have them beat because we are already winning. Once we got them down, we have to keep them down and punish folks. We can’t just think we have them beat if we are up by a touchdown or two because these other teams want to win just as bad as we want to win. Once we get a team down, we have to keep them down and we didn’t do that last week.”
Wait. There’s more.
“I felt embarrassed because I know how much better we are than that. I know how much harder we can play than that and how much smarter we are than how we played. I still think we were tougher than them, but it came down to mistakes. They made less mistakes than we did.
“We just have to reduce the mistakes that we made. We can’t make any mental errors or physical errors. We have to practice like we are perfect. If we mess up, we can’t make the same mistake twice. That is the only way we are going to win and get past last week.”
Now comes a warning for Eastern Kentucky this week as well as future opponents.
“It is something hard to move past, but we have to. I can’t speak for everybody else, but I have gotten past it. There is no reason to sit and dwell on it. But I will tell you this. We are still mad at the fact (UK lost to Mississippi State) and we are going to take that out on our next opponent and for the rest of the season. Our defense should have never given up those numbers to one running back and we have to make sure nobody else does to us what they did in that game,” Evans said.
Too bad the Cats couldn’t figure that out last week so they would be 5-3 today and not 4-4. Hopefully, it was a painful lesson learned that won’t ruin this season, but we’ll see.
Posted in UK Football
10 Responses to “Finally some truth: DE Evans admits Cats backed down, took win for granted against State”
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Jerry Tipton er, I mean Larry, this sure does have a negative vibe to it.
Sometimes the truth hurts. I was just glad to find another player other than Randall Cobb who apparently figured out that the team just let down and blew a game last week
Great job Larry. I’ll put it politely and say the Miss State games was a complete systems failure. It’s the players’ responsibility to get themselves motivated to give the maximum effort in a game. It’s the coaches’ responsibility to put the players in the best position to make plays. Looks like neither happened in this game. Preparation + opportunity = success. Conversly, a lack of preparation (a poor game plan) + opportunity = failure.
Not the equation we wanted to see, but yours is the one we did see
This was NOT a negative article. This was a player giving his honest opinion and feelings about what happened on Saturday. For the most part, these are the same things that most fans were thinking anyway. Rich Brooks even stated, in a previous article, that they may have underestimated Mississippi State. That is completely unacceptable in the SEC. Hopefully Larry is right and this is a painful lesson that they will learn from and it will fuel their fire to dominate their remaining opponents and get them to a bowl game. GO BIG BLUE!!!
[...] Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger reports that DeQuin Evans thinks Cats backed down. [...]
DeQuin has the attitude I love and that’s why we believe in him and this team. I want to see the UK team that Coach Saban said was the most physical team Alabama had faced all season. We will get to the next level, hear me John Clay? There is a “next level” for UK football and it’s called being able to compete (defense). Look at what Florida has accomplished—national champions in football and basketball. My expectations aren’t too high, and I’ll be looking forward to the rest of this season and will support UK football through victory and in defeat. Go my big blue Wildcats—you are awesome.
That a way. Keep those high expectations because they match what Rich and his staff have. We have to be realistic,but there is nothing wrong with wanting the best and evenutally UK can get there. Still hard for me to imagine that folks consider going to three straight bowls no different than what it was before. Progress is being made slowly and surely
If Brown keeps laying back in that stupid nickel defense, things are only going to get worse. They kept saying we were going to sell out to the run and it never happened. 4-3, 4-3, 4-3!!!! That extra linebacker will apply pressure and help stop those runs up the middle.
Being a long suffering UK football fan from the 1960’s, I do not see how any UK football team can under estimate or look past any team they play. History repeats itself.