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Dane Key has played for three offensive coordinators in his collegiate career and the junior wide receiver isn’t worried about the offensive coordinator turnover that has been a consistent theme in Mark Stoops’ tenure as Kentucky’s coach.
It didn’t take Key long to create a positive dialogue with Bush Hamdan, Kentucky’s third offensive coordinator in three years. The player and coach hit it off almost immediately and Key liked Hamdan’s approach in practice.
“I fit in really good with him,” Key said. “I like to hear what he has to say after each and every practice, whether it’s a good thing — if I had a good day at practice — or whether I had a bad day at practice. I like to just stay level-headed and just keep on improving.”
Key, who enjoyed a standout prep career at Frederick Douglass High School, doesn’t feel any pressure going into his third season at Kentucky. In his first two seasons with the Wildcats, Key played in 26 games and started 24 of those contests. He has made 79 catches for 1,155 yards and 12 touchdowns.
“I don’t feel any pressure,” he said. “I just feel like pressure makes diamonds. So, let’s go out there like diamonds.”
Learning a new system has become the norm for Key. Throughout the process, he has learned that “all offenses are the same.”
“It’s just how you call it — just learning a different name for what we used to call it,” he said. “That’s pretty much all that we’ve had to do is just learning a different terminology.”
He added the adjustments haven’t been difficult but said it takes time to get into a flow of the new offensive schemes.
“It’s just something you have to practice,” he said. “If you want to get better at something, you have to practice it every day. I feel like that’s what I’ve really been trying to do is just practice, practice the offense — not just learning in my position, but trying to learn everybody’s position on the field.”
Key also will be playing for a third signal-caller, this time Georgia transfer Brock Vandagriff. Like Hamdan, Key has created a bond with Vandagriff.
“Brock — I like that guy,” Key said. “He’s a hard worker. And you know, just when I get here, I see Brock is getting here already. When I’m leaving, I see Brock still there. That’s what you like to see about your quarterback. I think he might sleep there.”
Within his own position group. Key said the wide receivers have plenty of potential.
“I think this is the closest room that we’ve had,” he said. “that connection can go a long way. You know, celebrating each other. When one makes a play, everybody’s celebrating with them. I’m just super excited. I think it’s an experienced room and I’m just super happy to be a part of that room.”
One Response
Dane is a great kid who comes from a great family. I’ll never forget his freshman season. When he caught that bomb vs Florida he went up and over the defender to make the catch. I went crazy. Barion and Dane both came in as true freshman and got to work. A lot of people say Barion and Dane had a sophomore slump. I don’t see it that way. Weve had a terrible offensive line the last 2 years. Like the quarterback the wide receiver needs a second to run his route. Often times the line wouldn’t hold and Dane would know that and just make a cut to get open. Sometimes whoever was the quarterback whether Leary or Levis they didn’t have time to let the receiver run their proper route. Levis talked about this after he got drafted. He said Dane and Barion are very good for especially for true freshman with basically no line. That’s why the trenches is the most important part of the game. It don’t matter if you have Tom Brady as your quarterback if you have no line and no time it’s not going to work. I know the offensive line has improved but how much have they improved. We needed depth and we went on and got that in the transfer portal. I would have gotten a couple more in the transfer portal just to be sure. We have Mincey Farmer and Crease. Mincey and Farmer are ready but I think Crease needs a year of conditioning and lifting. I just hope those 2 transfers that will play and probably start are exactly what we need. A good sign is that we have a starter from last year who’s not starting this year so hopefully with just that sign is improvement. The quarterback needs 3-4 seconds at least to get rid of the ball. Going into this year the 3 positions of need was running back offensive line and secondary. I think the secondary is going to be much better. I think the running back room is deeper with better talent than last year. Besides Ray Davis we were very thin at running back last year. If you remember Davis was great at the beginning of the year but as the year went on he kind of struggled at the end of the year. The Florida game was 25% of his production for the year.
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