Kavosiey Smoke "played tough" in UK's opener and may get the ball more at Florida due to a lack of running back depth. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Remember a few weeks ago when it looked like Kentucky football had more depth than ever before at running back.
Leading rusher Chris Rodriguez was back with a chance to break Benny Snell’s all-time career rushing mark at Kentucky.
Transfer Ramon Jefferson was described as a “human bowling ball” by offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello.
Senior Kavosiey Smoke had opted to stay at UK rather than transfer. JuTahn McClain and Michael Drennan were players waiting for a chance to shine in Scangarello’s offense that was designed to involve the running backs more in the passing game.
Then there was redshirt freshman La’Vell, a 205-pounder with strength and speed who had now been in the system for a year.
“He was really solid (in camp),” Stoops said of Wright. “He got dinged up late in camp and now he’s back healthy. It’s nice to have La’Vell back because he’s a tough, physical runner. At some point, he was running with the (first team) last spring. We have a lot of confidence in him.”
That was the ideal stable of running backs — or at least it was. Now Rodriguez has been indefinitely suspended it seems, Jefferson is out for several weeks with an injury suffered in the first half of last week’s game and McClain is week-to-week after also being hurt in the opening game.
“Ramon will be out for several weeks,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said Monday. “For the extended future, Ramon will be out.”
Jefferson, who had 10 yards on two carries, transferred from Sam Houston State after rushing for a career-best 1,155 yards and 13 touchdowns last year when he averaged a Rodriguez-like 6.7 yards per rush.
Smoke started for UK in the win over Miami of Ohio and ran for 32 yards on seven tries. As a team, Kentucky rushed for just 50 years — the second-lowest single-game rushing performance of the Stoops era.
Stoops said Monday that he was pleased with how Smoke played despite the low rushing total.
“We can feed him the ball more. He played tough,” Stoops said. “He played physical and did things that do not always show up.”
Those hidden things included solid pass protection, an area Smoke has had trouble with before.
Scangarello vowed after the Miami win that Kentucky would get back to a more physical running game at Florida. However, Kentucky’s going to have to do that without three running backs it expected to have and that likely will not be an easy task.
One Response
Just absolutely amazing. Two UK RB’s hurt in the opening game of a promising season, and the bell cow on the bench, I guess forever! UK is just "snake bit" when it comes to football. Something every stinking year. Stoops can’t give a satisfactory answer on C-Rod, and is being told by "SOMEONE" what he can or cannot say. Who is the person with this much power would be nice to know? This issue is going to turn off a lot of UK football fans if it continues, you just watch. It already has.
Now, the talking season is over, and If what I saw in the run game this past Saturday night continues, I think UK is in deep trouble at Florida. I also don’t think UK beats Florida in Gainesville without Rodriquez carrying the rock…… and carrying it a lot too! All that promising preseason hype may wind up being a lot of hot air. Look, I hope I am dead wrong, but all this "cloak and dagger" stuff smells.