Kentucky solved short-yardage issues in Week 1

Kentucky had many problems to fix this offseason. This football program went to the transfer portal to fix those problems. Most notably, the offense wanted to get back to its roots on offense under head coach Mark Stoops. This is an organization that wants win at the line of scrimmage with physical play and control the game with its rushing attack.

There were numerous ugly moments against Toledo on Saturday, but the Cats did control the game with its ground-and-pound offense.

UK rolled up 221 non-sack rushing yards and held Toledo to 80 non-sack rushing yards. The Cats wanted to get back to winning the line of scrimmage battle after the running game had some struggles, and the defense could not stop the run over the last half of the SEC schedule. The defense showed some progress, but how the offense performs in the rushing department feels more important with a brand new offensive line and two new tailbacks.

Stoops was impressed with the first performance.

“I felt like both guys hit it very good. Seth (McGowan) had an opportunity to make the last man miss, and the player made a nice tackle. Shoestring tackle on him,” Stoops said. “But I felt like Seth was really, really close to ripping that one off as well. And I felt like we leaned on them all day. Very effective runs.”

The 79-yard sprint by Dante Dowdell untouched off the right side in the fourth quarter definitely improved the final numbers. However, UK also saw a big growth in one key area.

Short-yardage.

Kentucky finished the win with four third down conversions on six third down attempts. That 66.7 percent conversion rate was better than last year’s 59.5 percent mark on 37 third-and-short snaps. Dowdell was the most effective short-yardage tailback in college football last season and Zach Calzada sneaks were very efficient in game one. The Cats want to control games by running the football. That cannot happen unless you can grind out first downs on third-and-short. The offense was able to do that in Week 1.

Stoops called improving in short-yardage an emphasis for the program in the offseason. A big weakness looks improved just after one game. This offense very likely will not be the most exciting in college football to watch but much of that is by design. Kentucky is going to play to a ground-and-pound identity. That identity only works if they can win at the point of attack and grind out tough yards.

“We’d like to try and keep people off balance that way,” Stoops said about the run game.