He’s receiving weekly Southeastern Conference awards and national attention. He’s climbing the NFL mock draft charts.
Senior linebacker Josh Allen also has helped Kentucky get off to a 5-1 start while increasing his quarterback sack career total to 20 1/2 with plenty more likely to come.
“We were all doing our jobs. It isn’t just one guy doing this. I commend the whole defense,” Allen said. “We knew we had to step up and make big plays this year and it has happened.
“We (the defense) like the game in our hands. We know when we are out there nobody can score on us. I love these guys. I love to play with them every Saturday. I love to play with them every day.”
That’s not going to change because Kentucky lost 20-14 in overtime at Texas A&M last week. The Cats remain in the top 20 this week and are still 3-1 in SEC play while enjoying a bye week before hosting Vanderbilt Oct. 20. Kentucky still has games at Missouri, Tennessee and Louisville along with home game against Georgia and Middle Tennessee.
Count me as one who will be disappointed if UK “only” finishes 8-4 now. This team, despite its recent offensive struggles, is better than that because it has a defense to lean on and that defense is led by Allen.
Remember the same day UK lost at Texas A&M, Mississippi State and Florida knocked off top 10 teams Auburn and LSU. Kentucky beat both State and Florida by double digits. Kentucky also has a win over South Carolina, which has lost only to Georgia and UK this year.
Allen embarrassed the Mississippi State offensive line when it chose not to double team him. South Carolina tried to spread the field often to make Allen play more in space and then often double teamed him yet he still had eight tackles, three sacks, four tackles for loss and a forced fumble. Against Mississippi State and South Carolina he had 14 tackles, four sacks, six tackles for loss, two quarterback hurries, a forced fumble and a pass breakup. He had four solo tackles against Texas A&M — and UK fans thought he was held at least that many times when no calls were made.
“He tries to get a great pass rush every play and they (opponents) hold him. If it is not called, he just has to play through it,” Kentucky safety Mike Edwards said. “But he’s a great player and he will get drafted pretty high. We all know what he can do.”
He needs six sacks to become UK’s all-time leader (Oliver Barnett has 26) and three to tie Bud Dupree for second with 23.5.
“I love when teams have to game plan against me. I feel like that is respect and I feel like if they don’t show respect to me I have to take it out on them,” Allen said.
He’s doing that and more. He’s dominating, something few defensive players can do. Early in my career covering UK sports I got to watch All-American defensive end Art Still do that for Kentucky in 1976 and 1977. Allen is doing the same type of things now. Remember at Florida when he knocked down a two-point conversion pass when the Gators were trying to rally and then forced a fumble that turned into a UK touchdown on the game’s final play. He dropped deep into coverage again at Texas A&M to break up a pass play. Few players have the ability to pressure the passer, stop the run and drop deep into coverage like Allen does.
Allen thought about leaving UK for the NFL instead of playing his senior season. He opted to come back because he expected UK’s defense to be better and thought the Cats could make their mark in the SEC this year.
“We have a team full of veterans on defense. We are supposed to play like this,” Allen said. “It is not spectacular. It is normal to us. It’s business. Defensively we are just controlling everything and I am loving it.I came back because we had something special here.”
Coach Mark Stoops said Allen put a lot of thought into coming back to UK even though the coach didn’t want to divulge all that went into the process.
“He most definitely would be on an NFL roster this year. But he decided to come back and make a difference for the rest of his life. He’s playing some incredible football. Really, I know statements get blown up and get headlines so you have to be careful not to get crazy with it, but he is playing some outstanding football, as good as I’ve seen,” Stoops said.
As good as Stoops, the former defensive coordinator at then national power Florida State, has seen?
“With all the things that he does and how versatile he is and how hard he’s playing and how dynamic he is. With his pass rushes and doing good in coverage, he’s just doing a lot of things good,” Stoops said.
Don’t look for that to stop, either. Allen won’t let one loss derail his play or what the team has done and can still do.
“This season is a grind. It is always that way in the SEC,” Allen told me two weeks ago. “If we hit a bump or two along the way, we’ll deal with it. This team won’t quit. I won’t quit. We want this to be a special year for everyone. We’ve got the fans with us and we’re not going to disappoint them.”