Allen Dailey and other UK receivers could not make any explosive plays against Georgia. (Vicky Graff Photo)
SEC Network announcers and analysts have been very gracious with their praise/evaluation of Kentucky’s football program the last two years. But they also have a job to do and the brutal truth about this year’s Kentucky offense is impossible to ignore.
After failing to get a touchdown in Saturday’s 14-3 loss to No. 5 Georgia, UK has scored 13 offensive touchdowns in six games. Six of them came in the overtime loss to Mississippi. That means in the other five games, UK has seven touchdowns and that’s not a winning recipe in the SEC or any other league with the way today’s offenses produce points.
SEC Network analyst Jordan Rogers blasted UK late in Saturday’s loss for showing no sense of urgency trying to get the ball snapped in the fourth quarter trailing 14-3. He also said the obvious about UK’s lack of a downfield passing game.
“You have got a good run game without leaning on all the quarterback runs. They have got to find some balance. If you cannot take the top off the defense or even threaten to do so, you are going to get teams stacking the box, taking away the short throws and rallying to the run. That’s not a recipe for success,” Rogers said near the end of the game.
No it is not.
SEC Network play-by-play announcer Tom Hart correctly suggested late in the fourth quarter that there would be some “second guessing” by UK fans about not playing true freshman quarterback Beau Allen, a prolific high school passer.
“I would make the argument last year they were better off without a quarterback (when receiver Lynn Bowden moved to quarterback) than they are this year,” SEC Network analyst Chris Doering said.
He’s right and the offensive numbers at the end of last season with Bowden at quarterback would support his claim.
“I just don’t know the identity of this offense. I don’t know what they are this year,” Doering said. “I thought Kentucky had a chance to move forward this year but it looks like they have taken a step back.”
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops obviously does not want to believe that even if his team is now 2-4 with games against Vanderbilt, Alabama, Florida and South Carolina remaining.
“You have to play really perfect and make some big plays to beat a team like that and we didn’t do it,” Stoops said after Saturday’s loss.
Kentucky had no explosive plays in the passing game and only two in the running game — both by Chris Rodriguez. No wonder quarterback Joey Gatewood, who made his first start, said the key to finding more explosive plays was simply execution.
“That’s the end of it, there’s nothing else to it. We need to execute whatever play is called. We need to go out there and know we are more physical and dominate them,” Gatewood said.
“Every now and then take shots, run the ball, gas them, what we do. That is some of the stuff of what we do. We will learn from all of this and we will go from there.”
But will they?
