Mark Stoops has a phrase he repeats often: We sold the farm.

It’s a way the Kentucky coach describes how his defense is pressuring the quarterback by blitzing. The trouble in recent weeks is that selling the farm isn’t yielding the results Stoops is looking for to keep opponents out of the end zone.

The last two weeks, Kentucky’s defense gave up 586 yards at Mississippi State, and 489 yards against Tennessee in two lopsided losses.

The Tennessee game was the third straight game and fifth this season the Wildcats gave up at least 400 yards.

At Georgia on Saturday, Kentucky faces a middle-of-the-SEC offense with major questions at quarterback a week after it started a former third-string QB in a five-turnover loss against Florida.

The Wildcats lost an anchor on their defensive line when DT Melvin Lewis broke his leg against Auburn.

Stoops’ attempt to fix those defensive breakdowns was to shuffle the depth chart, especially in the secondary.

In Athens, Stoops will have first-year and redshirt freshmen in starting roles.

True freshman Derrick Baity will start at one cornerback over Kendall Randolph and Cody Quinn. At weakside LB, Khalid Henderson is now listed with Ryan Flannigan as a possible starter.

And senior A.J. Stamps, a team leader, is listed behind redshirt freshman S Mike Edwards.

“A.J., all those guys, they work their tail off and they’re a big part of our program,” Stoops said Monday. “They’re doing the very best they can. They’ll all continue to play. Based on results, you have to go with who’s producing.”

Beyond personnel changes, Kentucky needs improvement on third down, illustrated by a screen pass turned zig-zag touchdown in the second half by Tennessee.

“That comes from frustration and desperation because you’ve got to sell the farm because we’re not getting off on the other third downs. And the score is what it is, so you need a stop,” Stoops said.

“You sell the farm, they slip the screen out on us and it goes to the house. Those are things that we know we can get figured out. First and second down defense, we were efficient a lot of the times.”