The platoon system is back. See why it’s working to perfection for UK football.

Derrick LeBlanc has an unenviable task.

Each Saturday, he has to convince seven or eight guys — most taller than 6-foot-3 and weighing more than 300 pounds — to wait patiently for their turn.

Somehow, some way, Kentucky’s defensive line coach has made it work.

“‘Y’all put your trust in me we’re going to do big things,’” junior defensive end Calvin Taylor remembered LeBlanc promising when he arrived last season. “First year, we maybe had some guys didn’t buy in, but this year we’ve really bought in and we’re really close-knit now.”

It’s never easy to convince seven or eight large linemen to put their individual statistics aside and be willing to rotate in and out regularly with the players at their shared position, but it’s a process that’s working for the Cats this season.

“We’ve all bought in,” said junior Phil Hoskins, who hasn’t started a game yet on the defensive line, but leads that group in tackles with 10, including a sack and tackle for loss.

“When it’s game day, everybody’s like, ‘Oh, Coach, let me in. Let me in.’ But we do love the little break. It keeps us fresh, keeps our legs fresh so we can go harder when we get back out there.”

Kentucky’s defensive line coach has convinced that group that they’re stronger together than they are as individuals, that they can scan the stat sheet on Sunday afternoon looking at their own numbers, but that they really need to focus on what the group did the game before.

“The biggest stat is a win, right?” defensive coordinator Matt House said. “And the more you win, the more guys see the results. You look at what you’re able to do in rush defense when you’re fresh and the guys have bought into that up front.”

LeBlanc confessed that “it’s not always easy.

“Most teams don’t play seven guys like we do,” he said. “We try to reward them for their work.”

So if you’ve noticed a fair amount of three-and-outs from Kentucky’s defense — UK is getting them 41.8 percent of the time this season versus 24.3 percent of the time last season — it might’ve come thanks to a hungry push from defensive linemen.

“When you get a three-and-out, you get to go back in,” explained Taylor, another non-starter, who is second among interior defensive linemen in tackles with eight, including his own sack and tackle for loss. “When you get a three-and-out, the same group’s up. If they get four plays, then we switch. It’s all fun.”

Taylor then uses a phrase that might cause many UK basketball fans to twitch.

“It’s a platoon system,” he said. “That’s what we’ve bought into. … I want to see everybody win. That’s the mindset we’ve bought into.”

That plan seems to be working.

The eight different interior defensive linemen who have played this season have combined for 47 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, four quarterback hurries, three pass breakups and a forced fumble.

With at least seven regular-season games left to play, that group would need just four more tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks to measure up to the defensive line totals for all of last season.

That’s all been with a limited starting nose guard in Quinton Bohanna, who has been slowed by an ankle injury early this season, and without likely starter Josh Paschal.

“The strength of that group is the group,” Coach Mark Stoops said of the defensive line before the South Carolina game. “There’s a bunch of guys playing and they’re all playing well.”

“They’ve been unselfish; they’re playing hard. It’s nice to have that rotation and continue to rotate guys through. … Guys are just buying into their role.”

On the Monday after the South Carolina game, Stoops joked that he might have bragged about that position group a little too much. There were flashes of players being undisciplined and not sticking to their assignments.

“If they start to do too much then there’s breakdowns,” he said. “There was some of that in this game. That’s not for a lack of effort and good intentions and all that. They have great minds and great hearts and want to make plays, but they’re too anxious at times.”

Kentucky’s coaches hope to show those issues to a mostly veteran group and get the problems cleaned up in time for the trip to Texas A&M where the No. 13 Cats will face a dual-threat quarterback in Kellen Mond and the SEC’s second-leading rusher in Trayveon Williams.

Saturday

No. 13 Kentucky at Texas A&M

When: 7 p.m.

TV: ESPN

Working as one

Kentucky has been rotating eight defensive linemen in a platoon system that is keeping players fresh and racking up stats. Here are the eight, listed with height, weight and year in school: