Kentucky Football is Resurrecting the Fullback, kind of

John Conner isn’t walking through that door, but Kentucky will be giving Chris Rodriguez an extra blocker or two this fall. The days of cowboy collared fullbacks like Mike Alstott are long gone. The spread seemingly took the fullback out of the game, until a few special athletes showed the position’s value in the NFL.

Flirting with the Fullback

When Brad White first watched Iowa’s offense in the UK film room, the defensive coordinator had to laugh. Kentucky was preparing for a Citrus Bowl opponent that essentially ran a goal line offense on every single down.

“Some of our younger players that haven’t been around and have only seen spread offenses, especially in high school, they don’t even know what a fullback is,” White said.

They may have never seen it in a game before, but they probably saw it on Sundays. Kyle Juszczyk forced his way onto the field with a wide variety of skills as a rusher, receiver and powerful blocker. Kyle Shanahan integrated the fullback into the San Francisco 49ers’ offense and all parties have succeeded. Now Rich Scangarello will try to replicate that success in Lexington, kind of.

An Experiment

While introducing Scangarello as Kentucky’s next offensive coordinator, Mark Stoops was asked if the Wildcats were bringing back the fullback. He laughed it off, “We aren’t going 21 personnel.” A week later former four-star outside linebacker Justice Dingle was listed as a fullback on UK’s spring football roster.

“[We’re] Holding some auditions, see what guys can do,” Scangarello said Tuesday.

If Dingle passes the audition, he’ll fill a role that’s been described as an H-back over the last decade around college football. Multiple Kentucky tight ends have lined up off the line of scrimmage as lead blockers, a role Brenden Bates thrived in last fall. Scangarello believes that off-ball role for tight ends and fullbacks is vital in his pro-style scheme.

“I’m a huge believer in multiple personnels and tight ends are a big part of that. I look at tight ends as hybrid type guys. They’re chess pieces,” said Scangarello. “The ability to manipulate a defense or put guys out of position, it all starts with bigger players. And if he can do that, then it frees up receivers, halfbacks and frees up tight ends. So they are going to have a huge part of what we do and getting them comfortable in the run part of it and tying it to the pass game. I think we got the right kind of guys.”

For Kentucky’s fullback/tight end experiment to succeed, Scangarelllo must find a chess piece that can act as the queen by doing a little bit of everything on the gridiron.

“There are some guys that play close the line of scrimmage. There are some guys that are better off the ball and around with slot traits and things like that. You want to have a balance of all of them that add up and give us a perfect tight end,” said the offensive coordinator. “I think we have those kind of guys I want to see who can play off the ball, who’s smart enough to do it. You have to have a good feel for the game. So we’ve got a couple guys we’re gonna take a look at and see which one sticks and if that can carve out a role for ’em.”