The UK offense had to regroup at halftime again Saturday. (Vicky Graff Photo)
For the second straight game Kentucky quarterback Devin Leary was so-so at best the first half and then much better in the second half.
In Saturday’s 28-17 win over Eastern Kentucky, he completed 10 of 13 passes for 198 yards and three scores the second half when he averaged 15.2 yards per completion. He finished the game completing his last eight passes.
The first half he was 14 of 25 for 125 yards and on touchdown with one interception.
Receiver Tayvion Robinson said Leary “probably just got comfortable” after a halftime conversation with offensive coordinator Liam Coen.
“Probably talked about things he was seeing,” Robinson, who had six catches for 136 yards and two scores, said. “I feel like just as a unit we just got to stop starting slow. Come out and execute better, and stop shooting ourselves in the foot.”
Leary knows Kentucky has to start games better than it has the first two weeks of the season.
“We will definitely take the win. It’s hard to win, but we’re much better than that. We understood that we got to start better in the first half, the defense balled out credit to those guys and in the second half, we started to pick it up a little bit,” Leary said after the game.
“But a lot of guys in the locker room are kind of dapping each other up, understanding that we got to start better. So that was a big takeaway from today.”
Leary said Coen wanted to go with more tempo in the second, something that suits him because he’s played in that style often.
“It’s a little bit of what I’m comfortable with, but at the end of the day, in camp, whatever he calls, however, he wants the offense to operate, it’s my job to make sure we’re running it smoothly. But it was good to see us get a little bit of rhythm, a little bit of tempo, second half, and put some points on the board,” Leary said.
“I think that the biggest thing for our offense is not trying to score 40 points in one play. It’s not possible as much as we want it to happen. You can only go one play at a time, winning one play.”
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said on his postgame radio show that he didn’t want to “throw anyone under the bus” but confirmed Leary missed some throws in the first half. He also said receivers were not “making tough catches to bail him out” in the first half.
“For me, a couple of those missed throws early on mechanics were a little bit off, coming off to the sideline. It was really cool to talk to (backup quarterbacks) Kaiya [Sheron], Deuce [Hogan], and Destin [Wade] and they were kind of just giving me some pointers on cleaning up my footwork and making sure that I’m not rushing anything,” Leary said. “The second half kind of just settled in and just took what the defense gave me.”
Kentucky had only 51 plays against Ball State and came back with just 61 against Eastern Kentucky mainly because it rushed for only 171 yards and was just 4-for-11 on third down conversions.
However, Leary’s teammates still have full confidence in him directing a productive offense.
“Devin is a great leader. Calm when we are going through something. He’s calm when we’re winning, he’s calm. That’s just something I like to see in the quarterback is calmness. Not panicking. That’s how you win,” sophomore receiver Barion Brown said.
3 Responses
Hey, the mighty Chattanooga Mocs almost beat us and I think we went on to win 10 games that year. Historically, we play down to the competition but we joust pretty well with the windmills.
That is true Paul
Games are rarely won or lost in the first quarter and Devin is trying to do too much. Calm down, establish the run and then go to play action. He has the skills, he just needs to develop his composure and stick to the gameplan.