Issues with Kentucky's Big Blue Wall are real, but also fixable

Kentucky football’s identity since the arrival of Mark Stoops has been one built around a dominating and intimidating group of offensive linemen. There aren’t many college programs in the entire country that have nicknames for the group of 300-pounders. The Big Blue Wall has established itself as Kentucky’s most consistent strength over the last decade.

But the 2022 season is going to present an unusual challenge. This year’s Big Blue Wall is inexperienced. Three starters from the 2021 offensive line are now in the NFL. The offensive line is on its third coach in three years. Eli Cox was a midseason All-American last year at right guard, but he’s now playing center. Kenneth Horsey is the only player from last season still playing the same position, but he’s been dealing with injury the last few weeks and played sparingly in the opener.

Against Miami (OH) on Saturday night, that inexperience was on full display. Kentucky still came away with an encouraging 37-13 victory at Kroger Field, but there was no denying the shakiness of the Big Blue Wall. Quarterback Will Levis was sacked four times — three of them on third down — and hurried twice more. It felt like he was dealing with pressure every other time he dropped back in the pocket.

“A win is a win. We are not going to apologize for that.” Cox said postgame. “It was a great team win. A lot of guys got to play in some new spots, but, I mean, obviously that is not the standard with our Big Blue Wall. We’ve got to earn that title back and we have to have good preparation and have more snaps under our belts so the group can gel and start to be a cohesive unit.”

The Big Blue Wall has some work to do.

— Drew Franklin (@DrewFranklinKSR) September 4, 2022

Kentucky’s offensive line is relatively youthful in terms of big-game experience. Cox has not played center until this season. Redshirt freshmen David Wohlabuagh (left tackle) and Jager Burton (left guard) earned their first career starts against Miami (OH). Tashawn Manning and Jeremy Flax hold previous experience at this level but have never been consistent starters until now.

“They just haven’t played together,” Kentucky offensive coordinator Rich Scaganrello said postgame. “Kenneth had played with those guys so we eased him in last week and he didn’t even really run with the 1s. He just wasn’t there yet in football shape. Excited to get him back because he’s so important. But Jager is showing promise, Tashawn is showing promise, I know Eli gave up a sack on a play where he’ll learn from that. The tackles, starting a freshman at left tackle ain’t easy. We’ll learn from all that and they’ll come together and I would like to think that we’ll only get better from this day forward.”

Unfortunately, the Big Blue Wall won’t have much time to correct the mistakes. A critical road matchup against Florida — which will likely be ranked after beating No. 7 Utah on Saturday night — looms next weekend. But every game moving forward will provide a new opportunity for the offensive line to gel. The issues against Miami (OH) weren’t due to a lack of talent, more so a lack of playing time together.

“Yeah, it’s all fixable,” Cox added. “We have a young group that doesn’t have as much experience as we’re used to seeing in the past. I mean, we had to replace three guys lost to the NFL so you can’t rebuild the wall overnight. It’s going to take some time. We had a lot of guys that never even started a game here before that are very talented players who I’m very confident in, but now, having that experience under their belts, I think it’s only going to be smoother sailing from here for them.”

Will Levis agrees with Cox, and the QB has faith that his protectors will find a rhythm as the season rolls along.

“Just telling them I have full confidence in them, making sure that their minds are thinking positively, and they know what they are supposed to be doing, and as long as they trust in their coaching and in their keys then everything is going to work out,” Levis said after the win. “And obviously we had some instances where some things could’ve worked out a little better, but we are going to keep working. I have all the trust in the world in those guys and they know that.”