A "Broken Record" on Offense, Kentucky Still Struggling to Execute the Basics
Inexcusable errors by the Kentucky offense are leaving most with mixed feelings following the Wildcats’ 35-3 win over Akron. Mark Stoops felt like a broken record when he went to the podium for his postgame press conference to share his frustrations with the lack of execution.
Two bad snaps to the quarterback cost Kentucky 30+ yards. A holding penalty erased a 64-yard touchdown. The Cats muffed a punt. Passes were dropped. The routine is far from the routine for the Kentucky offense.
“There are things that really there are no excuses for,” Stoops said. “You have to get better. We’re going into the SEC play next week.”
The mistakes are baffling Kentucky’s offensive coordinator.
“We have some instances of losing our minds in situations,” said Liam Coen.
Kentucky Wide Receivers Fail to Execute
One play in particular frustrated Coen. One play after the long touchdown pass was wiped off the scoreboard by a penalty, Devin Leary dialed up a pass to Dane Key. Like a previous interception, the two appeared to be on a different page and the ball sailed into the hands of the opposing cornerback.
“It’s straight execution,” said Coen. “We’re running a 15-yard comeback. We run a 15-yard comeback (route) at 15 yards. We throw that bell on three steps, one-hitch timing to the outside (shoulder) pad; it wasn’t like that. It didn’t get executed that way. It was the right place to go with the football at the right time, right place, he was wide open and we didn’t execute. At the end of the day, if we don’t start executing, this stuff’s going to bite us in the butt when we play better teams.”
Key did not catch a pass in the win. His sophomore running-mate, Barion Brown, only caught two passes for 19 yards. When Coen was asked if he had to try to get creative to get those guys the balls, he essentially said, ‘No, they need to be better.’
“The guys that get the football are the guys that do things right all the time, in practice and in games they’re going to show up and the ball will find them,” said the Kentucky offensive coordinator.
Offense Still has Plenty of Potential
The offensive mistakes don’t make sense. How can this team look so good at times, then so bad at others? The best play of the day happened when Devin Leary and Ray Davis turned nothing into a big something. The big plays have come in spite of the fact that they are failing to execute the simple plays.
“It’s making sure we understand our assignment and really, just not doing too much. Do your job and do what you’re supposed to do,” said Leary. “It really starts with me. I think I need to do a lot better operating this offense and making sure that we practice right, making sure that we’re practicing every single rep, every single day like it’s a game. We’re definitely going to learn from this film, walk away and we’ll be a better team because of it.”
Kentucky scored 35 points and had 450 yards of offense on only 49 plays. Leary averaged 12.1 yards per passing attempt. There are reasons to be optimistic if Kentucky can continue producing at this rate, while eliminating the self-inflicted mistakes.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter until we fix it,” said the UK quarterback.
Will Kentucky be able to fix these problems against SEC competition? That’s the million-dollar question the Big Blue Nation cannot answer a quarter of the way through the 2023 season.
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