Players agree with fans about feeding Keaton Upshaw a lot more

upshaw-4

Keaton Upshaw (SEC Photo)

Kentucky fans are not the only ones thinking that UK should use tight end Keaton Upshaw a lot more. He had a touchdown catch Saturday in UK’s 34-10 loss at Florida and had three receptions, all in the first half. The second half he was not targeted by quarterback Terry Wilson.

That led former UK safety Mike Edwards, who now plays for the Tampa Bay Bucs, to post on Twitter after the game that it was time to “feed” Upshaw (the ball).

That led UK nose tackle Quinton Bohanan to respond that those were just “facts” about Upshaw. Edwards responded by saying it was not going to “say nothing” more and Bohanna came back with that Edwards didn’t know how much he was having to “hold back” also.

Upshaw had three catches for 28 yards in the game. A week earlier against Alabama he had three catches for 44 yards. The previous game against Vanderbilt he had two catches for 41 yards. That’s eight receptions for 113 yards and two scores in the last three games.

For some teams, that would not be big numbers. For UK, those are MONSTER numbers.

Stoops said the plan was to get Upshaw the ball more, but Florida’s defense made the necessary adjustments to prevent that in the second half.

“We were trying to get him the ball. We had a big explosive play for him called and he got grabbed. He got held. He got pushed. Whatever you want to call it, he didn’t get open,” Stoops said.

Stoops said run-pass option plays had been effective getting the ball to Upshaw and was the call on the touchdown pass.

“So obviously they made some adjustments and covered him up as well,” Stoops said.

The tight end admitted after the game he was upset not getting any chances to make plays the second half but said the Cats just need to “get better as coaches, players” before playing South Carolina to close out the regular season.

Upshaw said he was not worried about whether he would make the touchdown catch in traffic.

“I was pretty confident. Just throw it up and I will get it for you,” Upshaw said.

That’s the kind of attitude Kentucky needs from more players. In UK’s last 29 drives — not counting the Vanderbilt game — that have started in its own territory, the Cats have not scored a touchdown. Not one.

As Stoops said after the game when I asked him about going six straight possessions the second half without a first down, that is “losing football” and why UK has lost four of its last five games and not scored more than 10 points in any of those games.

Want more? Kentucky was outscored 55-0 in the second half by Alabama and Florida and gave up 488 yards while gaining 77.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Posts

All articles loaded
No more articles to load
Loading...