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Quarterback Devin Leary is coming off his best game at Kentucky where he looked like the accurate, productive passer that he was at North Carolina State before transferring to UK this year.
Now can he carry that performance over to Saturday night’s game at Mississippi State?
“I hope that Devin builds some confidence from this (Tennessee) game. As an offensive unit, for a team that was so disruptive going into it, I thought our offensive line, our group, our plan was very good as far as protection,” Stoops said.
Tennessee had one quarterback sack and one tackle for loss and Stoops said Mississippi State’s defense is just as disruptive and will test Leary and the UK offensive line.
“Very disruptive guys bringing a lot of different pressures. In a hostile environment, we have to do a great job of making sure we have a great plan. Protect him [Leary] first,” Stoops said.
“I’d like to see us have more balance than we did in this past game. For us to be successful — and you’ve heard me talk about it for so long– here’s a game where Devin throws for 375 yards, but we don’t rush the ball effectively and don’t win the game. Tennessee ran the ball effectively and the outcome was on their side.
“I think you have to — whether it’s perfect or whether you always have to be above in the run yardage, I’m not saying that— but we have to have an identity of being physical and have that balance and we didn’t have it this past Saturday. Hopefully, we’ll continue with the protection, we’ll build on some of the pass game. I was very pleased with the unit, with the plan, with the receivers competing, with the receivers making competitive catches to help the quarterback.”
For the first time this season, Kentucky had eight different players catch a pass and both Dane Key and Barion Brown had big games. Stoops said getting more plays on offense gave more players opportunities to make catches.
“With that (more plays), you are going to see guys get touches. How many times have we talked about that? It starts with getting first downs,” Stoops said. “I want to say it was tied in that game and you are playing a Tennessee offense that you know is hard to stop. They had 24 first downs, if I am not mistaken, we had 24, we were dead even.
“So for us, 24 first downs, you are going to get plays, you’re going to get guys getting touches, you’re going to get yards and all those things. You put a little more balance in there and you have done some good things.”
