Tight end Willie Rodriguez had two catches for 31 yards Saturday. (Vicky Graff Photo)
The obvious plus about Kentucky’s offense in the 24-16 win over Toledo Saturday was the running game featuring Dante Dowdell, who had a 79-yard scoring run, and Seth McGowan.
The next best part of the UK offense had to be getting tight ends involved in the passing game, something UK has not done consistently in recent years.
Senior Josh Kattus had four targets with three catches for 43 yards, including 32 yards after the catches. Sophomore Willie Rodriguez was targeted three times, with two catches for 31 yards and 23 yards after catch.
The tight ends combined for 74 of the 85 receiving yards and had five of quarterback Zach Calzada’s 10 completions.
“It was fun, I don’t really look at the game that way,” Kattus said about the tight ends getting so many catches. “I just go out there and play. If the ball finds me, it finds me. Willie made some great plays, and I got some hands on the ball as well. It was a lot of fun. We’re just going to try to keep it up.”
Kattus even got to hurdle a would-be tackler, something he had never been able to do in a college game before.
“It was pretty cool, I can’t lie,” he said. “That’s something I’ve told myself. If I don’t hurdle someone before my college career is over, it’s a failed career. I finally did it. It was a cool thing in the moment.
“My teammates were around me, celebrating, giving me some juice, and I was able to give the team some juice, too. It was an incredible play.”
Did he say anything to Calzada after he completed just 10 of 23 passes with one interception?
“Keep your head up, man, we all believe in him,” Kattus said. “I’ve seen him make some of those throws in practice. I trust him; the whole team trusts him.
“He’s a very good ball player, and he throws some really good passes. I didn’t think twice about what happened today, and I know in week two he’s going to be ready to go.”
Kattus said he’s not concerned about the offense, and if a few of the deep passes had hit the game would have been way different.
“I had one down the field that would’ve been a great catch if I came down with it. We’re going to get back after it at practice, and the offense has already identified some problems in the locker room,” Kattus said after the game. “ I think we’ll be good. Fans just have faith in us. We’re going to punch the clock this next week and be ready to go.”
15 Responses
I thought UK's use of tight ends Saturday was a positive, but as this column points out, the rest of the passing game was ZIP, ZERO.
Fans have observed for years that Stoops' offense does not utilize tight ends properly or frequently enough.
Does Saturday signal a correction on Stoops' part? I really rather doubt it, because he has demonstrated in spades over the years that he is who he is, and incapable of structural changes.
Does Saturday signal that the rest of the passing game is non-existent? That's what it looked like from this recliner as I watch EVERY SINGLE PLAY!!!!!!
Stoops must go!!!!!
Stoops must go NOW!!!!!
Stoops has given every opponent advantages since day 1. QB’s have have not done well except under innovative Liam Coen.
The revolving OC door needed to be used to get a new OC before this season started. It also need to be widened to have room to shove Stoops out when the OC goes.
TE’s will eventually learn they will rarely get passes if Stoops is in CONTROL of the offense. He obviously has a “yes man” as OC who is as clueless as Stoops.
UK FB is sliding further and further into a deep hole every game that Stoopsnis kept as the HC.
Let Barney pay the buyout with his fuel tire earning from whatever program wants an AD who throws money away on lifetime contracts.
Players not getting enough money according to some. Well, over $9 Million per year is wasted in Stoops that could be used to buy a lot of players.
"Fans just have faith in us". It's obvious Kattus has never visited the "Whiners Site" known as Vaughts Views!
If one can't enjoy the toledo win, they would have really hated the 10-1 Derrick Ramsey team. That team was one ugly win after another, pass completions were almost unheard of and running plays were all right up the middle. The defense carried that team. Rivals, says our 2024 class nil averaged 30k. Where do these people think we rank? Almost dead last with vandy and miss st. Now draw up a plan to get the most dynamic offensive playmakers to come here and pass up the uga, Bama, tenn, Miami, osu etc , who average 160k a player. Let's hear your plan!
Greg, I experienced the 1977 Ramsey team, and it was one of the truely great football teams in history. Your characterization of "one ugly win after another" is a complete mischaracterization of that season and that team.
2132025 University o f Kentucky Football Record B o o k UKathletics.com | @ UKFootball
1977–Won 10, Lost 1
10 North Carolina 7 Lexington Sept 10
6 Baylor 21 Waco Sept 17
28 West Virginia 13 Lexington Sept 24
24 Penn State 20 Univ. Park Oct 1
23 Miss. State* 7 Lexington Oct 8
33 LSU* 13 Baton Rouge Oct 15
33 Georgia 0 Athens Oct 22
32 Virginia Tech* 0 Lexington Oct 29
28 Vanderbilt 6 Nashville Nov 5
14 Florida 7 Gainesville Nov 12
21 Tennessee 17 Lexington Nov 19
252 111
COACH: Fran Curci
Yes, that was one ugly win after another.
The thing I remember about the 1977 and 1978 seasons is Ky was on probation. The wins they had those years were because Fran Curci was a cheater.
The professor, what did I miss? Completed Passes were almost unheard of? Running plays were almost always uo the middle? Those wins were not flashy, boring by most standards, I was there too! Derrick was a NFL tight end, playing qb, you won't find a 40 yard pass play in 1977. These people have a taste for nfl level football ,on a ufl budget
Kentucky finished this season #6 in the AP poll, It won at #5 (final ranking) and #11 (pre-season) Penn St. (11-1),
Kentucky also won at pre-season #19 Georgia, at pre-season #18 Florida, at #17 LSU, beat pre-season #16 Mississippi State, beat #17 (final ranking) North Carolina,
How can anyone characterize that team as winning ugly.
I am serious. I want an explanation for that slanderous comment about perhaps the greatest UK football of all time.
Winning ugly? Get Over it, it's same thing as boring, the same type of win you were complaining about that we had this week. Curci teams were not flashy, if they were playing those games right now, you would be complaining . I love ugly/ boring wins, you evidently have forgotten how we won in 1977
Greg save your breath. Haters gonna hate. Stoops had the Cats running over the competition. Averaging almost 400 yards a game against ALL competition. Winning like Ky has never won before. The whiners were saying the same thing as they are now, "no passing game". Stoops has tried to appease the whiners and got off course. He is going back to ground and pound and the "Football Bennies" are going to whine even more.
If you think my complaint about this team or Stoops is that this last game was "boring" you don't get it. This team is not a good team. This coach is in over his head, and pulling the program under water with him.
My interest has nothing to do with style of play, only results.
Stoops definitely elevated Kentucky football upon his arrival but the bar was set extremely low. After 7 years, he started popping up on lists as a must interview candidate for some prominent head coach openings even though he never won the East Division much less an SEC or national title. He was sure that he had the job at Texas A&M and had already unplugged from Kentucky and was envisioning the glory days that awaited him at A&M. Then at the last minute A&M said NO and Stoops was devastated. He never really plugged back into being the coach at Kentucky. He didn't want to be here at Kentucky any longer. After a 4 win season last year, Stoops was no longer a must interview candidate for open job anywhere. Now he realizes that Kentucky is as high as he will ever go. But with the SEC expanding to 16 teams, moving to a 9 game SEC schedule, and teams like South Carolina, Florida, and Vanderbilt stepping their games up Kentucky no longer has a path to be bowl eligible…not for even the Music City Bowl. His $9.5 million salary makes him a top 5 coach in terms of salary but our team has rapidly gone back to being a cellar team like it was when he first arrived. To make matters worse, he also has a Barnhart contract that we can't afford to buy out of. It's time to say good-bye to Stoops but that won't solve our football program's problems until we also say good-bye to Barnhart. Barnhart is crowing about the hiring of Mark Pope, and that was the right hire, but it only happened after EVERYBODY else in the college basketball coaching world had said NO to Kentucky. Pope will take Kentucky basketball back to the top where it belongs, but Stoops will only dig a deeper hole for whoever comes after him down the road to dig out of. It's time for a change but that means that Barnhart has to admit that he has F'ed up AGAIN and that won't happen. The good news is that basketball season is right around the corner and BBN can wash the shame off from the football season and start cheering for a championship caliber basketball team again.
When you are at the bottom the only movement you can make is up. OK Stoops has brought KY off the bottom. So the Cats finish 15th in a 16 team league. Is that the elevation you can expect for the compensation he gets after the length of time he has been here? OK, granted each season is a one-off, where does Stoops take the Cats after finishing 15th. And what if he finishes 16th this year?
10-1 UK FB in 1977, beating multiple ranked terms and even beat Penn St on the road when Penn St was a powerful program year after year.
The Toledo win is far from the 1977 season.
We who are unhappy with this 4th year in a row decline under Stoops also acknowledge that Stoops built a program that had 10 wins twice, with that second 10-win season the opportunity to advance UK into the elite level of the SEC. However, with Coen gone and a poor hire for OC, the momentum was gone and the offense began to struggle again, as it did most seasons when UK improved because the defense played well enough to offset the losing style offense Stoops demanded. Coen returned but Stoops could not hold him because he is an innovator and is now the HC At Jacksonville making special improvement to the WB footwork and planning a creative offense. He was going to outshine Stoops so Stoops did not want to have a sharp OC he could not control. So, UK FB is in fight for the cellar because the offense is lacking a decent OC. And the HC hires the OC, wearing out that revolving door!
Stoops beat Penn State as a Underdog. Both were 9-3 going into the game.