Kentucky offensive line was 'physical' in win over Ball State

Fixing the offensive line was a top priority for Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops in the offseason. The Wildcats made a change at offensive coordinator and added five offensive line transfers to the roster. Improvement was vital for Zach Yenser’s position group. It’s only one data point, but the Wildcats looked better against Ball State on the line of scrimmage.

Devin Leary was sacked only once in 32 dropbacks. The pressure percentage (34.4%) was high, but for the most part, Kentucky did not give up free runners allowing Leary to use his pocket mobility skills. In the run game, the offensive line led the way for 121 non-sack rushing yards on 6.4 yards per rush. Despite losing starting left guard Kenneth Horsey to a lower-leg injury in the first quarter, Kentucky played competent football at the point of attack.

Stoops like what he saw from the big men on tape.

“I think we were physical. I liked the offensive line play. I thought it was improvement,” Mark Stoops told reporters on Monday. “You could really see they were finishing blocks, they were playing physical, they were trying to run the ball downhill. I thought we did that.”

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Kentucky had to turn to West Virginia transfer Dylan Ray in the second quarter at left guard, and the walk-on was firm in pass protection and created some movement in the run game. Ray contributed to a solid performance, while USC transfer Courtland Ford also got some snaps at right tackle. Jeremy Flax had one of his better performances at Kentucky, and Marques Cox held up well at left tackle.

The misses that Kentucky had on Saturday were more assignment-based than matchup-based. Kentucky “miss ID’d some things in pass pro” and that led to some of the pressures on Leary. The communication aspect needs to be cleaned up, but overall, Kentucky played with effort and physicality.

The hope is that the improved line play will continue throughout the season. Good news came on Monday when Mark Stoops announced that Horsey’s injury is not season-ending. The super senior will return to the field in a couple of weeks. Now Yenser’s group needs to stack some good things together. Week 1 was a positive sign.

“When we did things right, we were very efficient,” Stoops said.