LEXINGTON — Carrington Valentine simply took up ping pong. 

It’s a brand new pastime for the Kentucky soccer cornerback. Already he’s getting aggressive about it. It’s in his nature. 

“Me, I’m a aggressive individual in the whole lot I do,” Valentine mentioned after No. 9 UK beat Youngstown State 31-0 on Saturday at Kroger Area. “That’s simply how I used to be raised. I’m the youngest of three — 4, counting me — and all of us play sports activities, and that is how we have been raised. All the things was a contest.”

He confirmed that battle on the sphere Saturday, serving to the Wildcats (3-0) protect a shutout with a pair of spectacular performs ultimately zone. Valentine broke up one cross and intercepted one other to assist maintain the Penguins (2-1) and not using a level. 

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That helped safe Kentucky’s first shutout underneath Mark Stoops, this system’s first since a 42-0 win towards Miami (Ohio) on Sept. 5, 2009. 

Valentine and the remainder of the UK secondary had some slip-ups Saturday — Valentine’s personal misplayed ball arrange a few of his heroics — however they have been energetic and aggressive, in step with the best way they’ve performed by way of the primary three video games of the season. 

And although upgraded competitors is simply across the nook, cornerbacks and safeties to date have boosted a Kentucky protection that got here into camp with questions there. 

The prevailing opinion was that the Cats have been stacked within the defensive entrance seven, an estimation that’s confirmed correct to date this season. 

The Wildcats have three rotation linebackers utilizing the sixth season of eligibility the NCAA granted athletes who performed by way of the COVID-19 pandemic. And that’s not together with J.J. Weaver, a junior who performed his twenty seventh profession recreation Saturday, leaving within the first quarter with what an upper-body damage. 

The defensive position has much less expertise, nevertheless it’s equally sturdy with veteran anchor Octavious Oxendine. 

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The query all the time was if the secondary might play as much as the extent of Kentucky’s major strengths. 

And early in coaching camp, Mark Stoops thought he noticed the reply. 

“I felt we have been a greater unit this yr,” Stoops mentioned Saturday. “I felt like we added some depth. We acquired some size, some guys acquired older.”

Will Levis didn’t want even that lengthy. He noticed the secondary’s progress in spring observe. 

“I imply, I went all of camp final yr with out throwing a decide,” Levis mentioned. “After which I threw like two picks within the first couple days (of spring observe). I used to be like, ‘Is it me?’”

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Levis settled on another reply, that the Cats secondary has “some actually good gamers” and a defensive coordinator in Brad White who “does a superb job of scheming,” giving opposing offenses “lots of various things that they might probably throw at them.” 

It was a lift for the secondary so as to add Keidron Smith, a senior switch from Ole Miss who had performed nook and security in his 47 profession video games with the Rebels and stuffed a necessity at cornerback for Kentucky. 

However Valentine has offered the same carry with a developmental leap from a season in the past. 

The 6-foot junior is listed at 194 kilos however says he performed final season at 180. However he’s grown in his understanding of the place, too. 

Final season, he remembers, he dropped a ball “that got here proper to me,” denying him the primary profession interception he coveted. He lastly acquired it Saturday, selecting off a cross ultimately zone after Youngstown State drove to Kentucky’s 2-yard line within the third quarter.

The play was eye-popping, Valentine tipping the ball to himself earlier than corralling the decide.

“I get my fingers on lots of balls, so it will get type of irritating, particularly while you see a few of your friends get interceptions, too,” Valentine mentioned. “You’re like, ‘Man, what’s unsuitable with me?’”

He’s extra mature than that this season. He’s realized the worth of persistence, he mentioned. 

Nonetheless, the primary of his huge performs Saturday got here partly because of his personal impatience. 

Valentine was crushed on a 27-yard cross by Youngstown quarterback Demeatric Crenshaw to former UK vast receiver Bryce Oliver on the Penguins’ first play of the second quarter. Coupled with a 15-yard penalty on Walker for roughing the passer, Youngstown state was in Kentucky territory on the 33. 

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On fourth-and-10 from the 33, Crenshaw appeared to Oliver once more and appeared to have discovered related success. The ball was all however in Oliver’s fingers when Valentine made a touchdown-saving play to tear it away. 

Stoops known as it “an excellent response” to giving up a giant play. 

“It appears to be like like they have a publish for a landing,” White mentioned. “To violently rip and end there on the finish to make it an incomplete, that reveals simply the last word competitor that (Valentine) is.” 

Attain Louisville males’s basketball reporter Brett Dawson and bdawson@gannett.com and comply with him on Twitter at @BDawsonWrites.