Rich Scangarello, new offense has Kentucky Football "excited"

While maintaining a considerable amount of their weapons, the Wildcats have gone through big changes on offense this offseason. Darian Kinnard and Wan’Dale Robinson both left for the NFL Draft. OC Liam Coen headed to the pros too to take the same job with the Super Bowl champion LA Rams. Those are three significant losses from Kentucky’s improved offense in 2021. But even so, enthusiasm resonated throughout the UK program after Saturday’s annual Spring Game.

So much of that has to do with Coen’s successor, 49-year-old Rich Scangarello. With 25 years of college and professional coaching experience, Scangarello is making his mark early and often on the UK program. 

His grasp of the game has impressed everyone, including senior QB Will Levis, who described it as mind-blowing.

“It’s just his experience and his knowledge of the quarterbacking position and just football in general,” Levis said following the Spring Game. “Even though you might think you have a good understanding of football, when you talk to someone like that you’re like ‘I don’t know anything.’ It’s always cool to remind myself and humble myself every time I know how to read a defense or I know how to run a play when he’ll go up there and kind of blow my mind when he explains it. He’s a football genius.”

Having the players acknowledge and understand his wisdom is one thing. Having the rest of the coaching staff doing the same is another. Even Mark Stoops praised his new OC on his instruction of the re-designed Wildcat offense.

“I love the way he teaches and I love the knowledge that he has,” Stoop said. “I sit in there and I like to just listen. Just like the way he does things so there’s a lot of knowledge there.”

Spring practice is all about first impressions. It’s true of new faces on the staff, but even more so for players looking to make a name for themselves. The Spring Game was the fanbase’s first chance to see Scangarello in to action. More importantly, though, is it was Scangarello’s first chance to see his players run their first test-drive of his scheme.

The next phase is all about building on Saturday’s performance from now all the way until the Wildcats’ opening kickoff on September 3rd.

“There’s a lot of work still to be done, but I like the foundation we’ve laid,” Scangarello said. “Now we can have a plan going into the summer and through August to the first game where we can create our identity with the types of guys we have.”

While the offense looked strong, Stoops and DC Brad White made it clear that the defense had some sloppy play while focusing on protecting their guys. Still, Scangarello looks to be on the right track to fill the hole Coen left behind after a great offensive season for UK. Stoops and the Wildcat offense sound eager to open up the rest of the playbook and the anticipation will only build for everyone to see more as we head towards the fall.

“When it’s all said and done, we’re very excited about where we’re going,” Stoops added. “We were relatively basic today but there’s quite a bit of carry over and you could see some nuances. We’re excited about where we’re heading with the offense.”