Coach Anwar Stewart could have a "disruptive" defensive front for UK this year. (Vicky Graff Photo)
We’ve reached the end of “talking season” for college football. Kentucky’s home opener against Miami of Ohio is Saturday. I’ve read prognostications from so many experts about where the Cats will finish at the end of the year that it has all become one big blur. Some said second in the SEC East, others said third. A few said fourth and one even said first. Their predictions have been all over the board.
So it appears that no one really knows how UK will do except maybe one expert. That would be Kentucky coach Mark Stoops. He has been around high level football for a long time with stints at Iowa, Houston, Miami, Arizona and Florida State before becoming the head coach at Kentucky. He is the only one that has consistently watched practice over the last few weeks of fall camp and he is the only one that can measure where this team is compared to previous teams.
Over the course of the last few days I have heard him say things about the overall team like, “We need to be consistent; too many ups and downs, we need to strain a little more” and statements like, “We need to continue to grind; continue to work”.
Those statements are fine but they don’t really tell me much about how this team will fare over an 8-game SEC schedule.
He also said some things that would help a person judge a little bit more than just a generic statement. Things like, “D line has been disruptive, much more active (as compared to last season)” when asked how the defense was coming along.
In talking about the offense he said about the running backs, “We have a lot of confidence in those guys; they have different strengths, different weaknesses and they’re all very good players and we’ll continue to iron that out.”
Not a lot of earth shattering news there. Most anyone that has been following UK knows that the running back position should be an area of strength for this team even if Chris Rodriguez has to sit out a few games.
Stoops also said that Will Levis had a great performance to wrap up the last scrimmage of fall camp. He said about Levis, “He looked really good, threw some really tough passes; catchable balls.” Stoops has been extremely complimentary of Levis during the entire fall camp.
But Stoops did say a couple of things that caught my attention. Comments that helped to give me a better understanding of where he thinks the team will be better and where he still has some concerns.
His first comment referred to an area where the Wildcats struggled last season. That would be in the defensive secondary — more specifically at cornerback.
“I feel much better about the secondary in general going into this year than I did a year ago. I feel that the guys that are returning are playing at a higher level. We have some different guys that are rotating in, so overall it’s very good. You add Keidron (Ole Miss cornerback transfer Keidron Smith) and then the guys that are there, we’re playing better. Even a guy like Maxwell (redshirt freshman Maxwell Hairston), young guy but he’s got some length and he’s got really top end speed so it’s been good to see him really emerge as the fourth corner; but you know, guys you can trust,” Stoops said.
So those comments were a real positive. It looks like some of the fishing that the football staff did in the portal this year has really paid off.
One other comment that I didn’t take as a positive involved the offense. Actually it was two comments about the offense but one that was aimed specifically at one position group. Stoops said that “we need the offense to be more physical.” He then later specifically singled out the wide receivers by saying, “They’re gonna have to be physical in this offense, that’s gonna happen. They’re going to block or they’re not going to be out there.”
Now if anyone has watched Kentucky over the last four years they have noticed that the UK offense creates a lot of explosive plays in the running game. The only way they have been able to do that was by having physical wide receivers blocking downfield.
The wide receiver group on this year’s team is probably more talented across the board than any group Stoops has had so far, but they also may be the least prepared physically to create blocks downfield in running plays. It’s going to be a lot more difficult for Barion Brown at 166 lbs. or Dekel Crowdus at 171 lbs., to overpower a safety or linebacker downfield than it would be for say, Josh Ali at 193 lbs. or even Wan’Dale Robinson at 185 lbs.
That doesn’t mean that the run game won’t be explosive this season but it may mean that some of UK’s smaller wide receivers will have to do a better job of using correct positioning and leverage to ensure that they can continue to help create explosive running plays in this offense.
All in all, reading between the lines it appears that Stoops really likes his team this year. He has been very complimentary of the defense across the board and he has also had some good things to say about the offense’s ability to move the ball against his defense.
All of that makes me believe that this team has a chance to be something really special this season. But nothing is guaranteed; they will have to earn it on the field. As Adolph Rupp used to say, “That’s why we play the games, to see who will win.”
2 Responses
I hope you are right Keith. I am going to continue to say that the absence of Rodriquez could cost UK in games he sits. It may well cost them in Gainesville. We will not know how talented and physical this team really is until this football team faces a real foe, and the bullets start flying, and there are no red shirts to enforce no contact. This UK team is loaded with youth also. This Miami game will be a good test for them.
We were just recently lectured by the basketball coach concerning football or basketball school. Well ,MofO is a football school even if it is out of the MAC. Lots of good coaches have come through that program, and football tradition is for real. They will come to play, we can count on that.Their QB is a player too. He will test the UK secondary.
We will know much more about this edition of the UK Wildcats football squad come Saturday night after this game is in the books. I personally think the UK defense will be the difference. UK is going to have to show me they can run the football effectively with the RB’s we have, minus C-Rod. They are going to have to show me this high powered offense they keep talking about can involve the TE’s a lot more, both blocking and receiving, and that our young receivers can vertically stretch the field and catch the football for scores. As usual….Go Cats!!!!
I second LarryPup’s post. I hope you are right. KY has the horses to get it done this season but they also have a nasty habit of playing to the level of their competition. I would like to see KY go out and play with a chip on their shoulder every Saturday and dominate the competition. Are we good enough to do that? That remains to be seen. But when we go out and play every game as if it were the SEC Championship, I think we have a good chance.