Offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan believes the UK offense took a step in the right direction last week. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan saw his team make some strides in UK’s 41-6 win over Ohio on Saturday. After watching the tape, Hamdan knows that his unit did some good things in Saturday’s contest.
“It was good to see the plays being made,” Hamdan said. “Third down situations, the fourth down conversions, guys making big plays in big moments was a step in the right direction. I just think the overall consistency.”
Now, the Cats face another challenge, as they travel to fifth-ranked Ole Miss on Saturday. Hamdan knows that the Rebels’ defense will pose a challenge for the Cats. What does Hamdan see in the Ole Miss defense?
“You know, I think similar to the first two SEC opponents we’ve played,” Hamdan said. “The front seven and defensive lines stand out. It’s going to be a good challenge. We are battle tested. We’ve faced good defenses in South Carolina and Georgia and we’re excited for this opportunity.”
This will be Kentucky’s first road game of the season, which brings with it a number of challenges. One of those is that UK quarterback Brock Vandagriff will be starting on the road for the first time in his career. Hamdan believes that the UK signal caller is ready for the challenge.
“It’s one of those things, you never really know until you’ve gone in there with a quarterback,” Hamdan said. “He’s done this. He’s very well aware. For us, it will be critical in that first quarter, settling everybody down with the movement, with the cadence, with the crowd noise. We’ve been repping it all week and we’ll be ready to go.”
Another element that the Cats will need to handle on Saturday will be the crowd noise. At Tuesday’s Kentucky practice, crowd noise was pumped onto the practice field to help the Cats simulate what they will be experiencing. Hamdan knows that it comes down to communicating.
“We have practiced as if our quarterback (communication) has not worked at times,” Hamdan said. “Quarterbacks know that from the standpoint of our signal operation. We don’t think it’s going to be a huge effect but again, you get in those environments, we’ve just got to do a great job communicating, playing fast, winning the pre-snap, doing the things we’ve been talking about since week one.”
One thing that could help Kentucky on Saturday is controlling the ball and keeping the prolific Ole Miss offense off the field. Those discussions will involve the entire coaching staff, according to Hamdan.
“Those are all things we have to think about during the week,” Hamdan said. “How are we going to win this football game. Those are conversations between (Mark Stoops), Brad (White) and myself, all of us putting our plan of attack together.
‘We know the brand we have to play. I think it’s become pretty apparent to me in the first couple of weeks what that is. We’ve got to go execute our plan to the best of our ability.”
9 Responses
What brand is he talking about? Especially in the first couple of weeks? I hope we don’t go back to playing with the brand we had the first couple of weeks and play with urgency and this game is the most important game of the year. Win this game and our season still has a chance at being pretty good. Lose this game and making a bowl game will be very difficult. We only have 2 for sure wins and one of those for sures could beat us which is Vanderbilt. Louisville is better than they were last year and they won 10 games last year. Like I said if we lose this game its going to be hard to make a bowl game. At Texas will be a loss. Tennessee will also be another loss. Florida is a 50/50 Louisville is a 50/50 Auburn is a 50/50 Vanderbilt is a 60/40 us. Texas and Tennessee are for sure losses I think we play Murray state or another cupcake that will be a win. So I see 2 more wins and slot of possibles. I feel like I’m playing spades at this point. I’m not saying we can’t beat Tennessee but I don’t think Stops can out coach Josh H. He’s a Much better coach than stoops. I see why they ran Mincey out of town. Complete bonehead on the line. He makes 5 mistakes every game. Texas might overlook us but its going to be nearly impossible to win at Texas. I think Texas and Ole Miss are pretty much the same team. How we play against ole miss will probably be how we play against texas. We need this ole miss game to have a ok season and to maybe make a bowl. At this point in the season I think we go 7-5 or 6-6. I definitely thought the floor the season would be 8 wins. Now that looks like the ceiling.
Ole Miss is racking up about 460 yards in the air. They could probably win without even running the ball because any average team can pass against UK with a lot of success.
This season was sold out when SC was allowed to come in and wallop a sleeping UK.
The TN coach is a product of Mike Leach, who recruited him at OK. The TN offense is one of the best air raids since UK had the air raid. Ole Miss, TN & TX are going to be some long days for UK.
The SEC has some big-time coaches & 5 of the top 6 or 7 teams in the nation confirms it. And in the Top 15 & Top 25 there is Mizzou, LSU, OK and even TX A&M. They would all riddle the porous UK secondary.
I agree that FL, AUB & Vandy & maybe UL should be 50/50 or so games, but the typical snoozing at kickoff lowers UK chances in every game.
Texas, Ole Miss will not overlook us.
They are disciplined and well coached.
So is big orange just south of the border.
Stoops is calling the shots at too many positions. He is the one who wants to hold back Wilcox and hold back the strong punter. If he was a top notch proven HC with experience on the O side of the ball, it may be OK to have input, but he is clueless.
I have totally given up on Stoops.
Wilcox is the football version of Reed Sheppard and Ole Rob "shifty dilly" Dillingham.
👍
Free the Wilcox.
Yes 👍
The game plan has to be built around the strengths and weaknesses of the O line. It’s easier to run block than pass block. We have a strong run game, especially with Chip coming back. Don’t shy away from passing on first down or running on second and third downs. Keep the defense guessing. Don’t be afraid of going on fourth down when we are in Ole Miss territory. The defense has to get turnovers. Our secondary will be put to the test of this season…and we still have Tennessee to play. The outcome of this game will let us know what we can expect for the rest of the season.