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Coming of this best game of the season against Tennessee when he completed 28 of 39 passes for 372 yards with two scores and no interceptions, quarterback Devin Leary hit 13 of 22 passes for 156 yards and two more touchdowns in Saturday night’s 24-7 win at Mississippi State.
However, he paid a price for his success.
He did not play in the fourth quarter after taking a hit on a pass to Barion Brown in the end zone that was caught out of bounds. His final pass two plays later was bobbled by Dane Key in the end zone before he fell out of bounds.
Leary returned to the field for UK’s final drive of the third quarter. He was sacked on second down and handed off on third-and-22 to end his night.
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops told Alyssa Lang of the SEC Network that Leary took a “little shot” late in the game. The quarterback had blood coming from several spots when he left the game.
“He got a little something in his eye. We’ll evaluate and see where we are,” Stoops told Lang immediately after the game.
Stoops offered a few more insights on Leary on the UK Radio Network later.
“Devin took some shots. He had something in his eye and couldn’t see clearly,” Stoops told Tom Leach. “It was getting to be a problem. Hopefully he will be okay.”
Stoops said that Leary “really battled” but worried that UK might be asking too much of its quarterbacks — backup Kaiya Sheron played the fourth quarter — on the road.
“We have to see if we are putting too much on our quarterbacks and get some things ironed out,” the UK coach said.
7 Responses
Well, another starting QB must leave a game due to injury and QB2 has has no prior game experience, and it showed.
Why does it seem that Stoops never gives his back up QB playing time until the inevitable injury demands it?
When does all this happen? You’d be saying that Stoops and company gave up if they pulled Leary and put in the backups.
Maybe a better back up might be a better solution.
Great win by the cats at a place that’s not been good to us. Bring roll tide. Go cats!
Dominant Victory.
Glad the Cats got this win. I will take a 21 point win on the road in the SEC any day and be thankful, but let’s be honest here. This mystical UK offense only put the football in the end zone twice all night in Starkville, and against a struggling Mississippi State team who had their starting QB out, his backup out, and finally played a freshman QB late. The other score by UK was a pick six by the defense and a chip shot FG when the offense bogged down in the red zone. Kentucky still couldn’t run the football effectively against "Cow Bell" U, and struggled on third down conversions. A strong rushing attack is the Stoops trade mark. That problem is not Ray Davis either. I also agree with Professor about Kentucky’s backup QB situation. That appears to be a problem. This coaching staff does prepare backup signal callers with meaningful game experience. UK will need Leary against the "Big Shot Tide" for sure. They will certainly need to score more than 17 points to compete in that game. Finally, the Kentucky defense was stellar last night. Go Cats!!!!
I meant to say the coaching staff does not play backup QB’s in many games to give them meaningful playing time. I assume because the game is always on the line.