Fans had a lot to cheer about Saturday when UK routed ULM 45-10. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky not only threw the ball deep, but it caught the deep balls and easily routed outmanned Louisiana Monroe 45-10 to open the season Saturday. Quarterback Will Levis and receiver WanDale Robinson were as good as advertised and they made receiver Josh Ali better.
— Levis was 18 of 26 passing for 367 yards and four touchdowns with a long throw of 62 yards and three completions over 50 yards.
— Josh Ali had his first 100-yard game with five catches on eight targets for 136 yards and one score — a 58-yard bomb. He had 47 yards after catch.
— Robinson had an impressive debut with five catches on eight targets for 125 yards and two scores, including one of 62 yards, with 34 yards after catch.
It was almost like you could hear the Hal Mumme Air Raid sirens going off, especially on the 58-yard, one-play scoring bomb to Ali.
However, as good as the offense was — and it rolled up 554 yards and got the first of many 100-yard rushing games this season from Chris Rodriguez — I was ever more impressed with the defense.
No, ULM is not good. It went 0-10 last year and never led in a game. Still, the defensive numbers were impressive.
The defense had six quarterback sacks and 14 tackles for loss while giving up just 87 total yards — or 1.4 yards per play. Five different players had a sack led by two from JJ Weaver while eight players had a tackle for loss led by DeAndre Square with 3.5 while Josh Paschal, Jordan Wright and JJ Weaver each had two.
Remember this is a defense that had five players picked in the NFL draft and all five made 53-man rosters, including first-round pick Jamin Davis and second-round selection Kelvin Joseph.
“We didn’t even feel it (the NFL losses),” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said. “We miss those guys and I love them to death and would love to have them but we have other guys to step in and step up.”
That’s a fact. Even with the losses to the NFL, Kentucky still started 10 seniors on defense and the only touchdown came after a UK interception and then a penalty kept alive ULM’s drive on the first possession.
“I feel like for the first game the guys up front were really disruptive,” Stoops said. “It looks like they trusted each other, trusted the defense, and did their job to the best of their ability. Take the penalties out and it was quite a performance from the defense. Anytime you hold somebody to 63 plays and 87 yards that’s impressive. Just a good team win.”
Exactly right. It was the kind of feel-good win UK needed to start what it hopes will be a huge season. The offense scored and the passing game clicked without forgetting Rodriguez.
The defense that averaged just 1.3 sacks per game last year lived in the backfield and has a bunch of playmakers at every level.
Obviously facing an SEC opponent in week two in Missouri will be a much more difficult game but there could not have been a better week one for UK.
“As good as we did, there are still so many things to clean up and get better on,” Stoops said.
True but a lot better to work on after a 45-10 rout than a game where things did not go so well.
6 Responses
Great Defense, but it was also great to see a QB that could hit a moving target. Levis did a good job of throwing "catchable" passes and leading his receivers.
With the cup cake game over, next week is when we need to show our blue colors. Go cats!!
To hold any college opponent to 87 yards for a game is impressive. about 1/2 of those yards occurred on that fateful first possession, so to hold a team to about 50 yards for the rest of the game after that first possession is even more impressive.
Yes, coach has some things to clean up and fix such as penalties, but this group seems tuned in to what the coaches are wanting to do.
On offense, I think it is clear that Levis is the QB1 for a reason, but I thought Allen showed well and is a very capable QB2 for this team. The offense’s second unit’s final score was very nice to see because it showed a desire to get a job done rather than simply run out a clock. The passing was nice to see, of course, but I got the feeling through most of this game that ULM’s Coach Bowden decided to commit to stopping the UK running attack and make UK beat them by going over the top. To UK’s credit, that is exactly what Levis, Robinson, and Ali did. Yet, even with that, the run-pass split was about 50-50 which is hardly a Couch/Mummy "air raid" type of distribution of the ball.
I think this was perhaps UK strongest opening game of the Stoops’ Era despite the turnovers and untimely penalties.
I couldn’t have said it better professor. It could be a very exciting season. Go Big Blue!
Spit up most of my Kool Aid when they intercepted and scored – now I’m down 38 points with my bet with Guido !
But…….. all’s well that ends well.
Prof checked all the boxes !!
Great balance between the run and the pass from the UK offense against ULM, Levis is very impressive, and Robinson is electric. UK has some weapons for sure. Good to see J J Weaver get to the QB twice. This game coming against Missouri will be the test for this UK team. I hope they stay humble,focused, and hungry. It is payback time too come the 11th.
On another subject, Georgia and Clemson going in, ranked in the top 5, makes me scratch my head a little. Both teams, offensively, were so boring that Herbstreet and Fowler were at a loss for words all night. Such a sorry football game for all the hype that proceeded it, unless you like a defensive battle from start to finish. I think UK has a better QB now than either one of those teams. Georgia’s defense looks very stout though.