Tayvion Robinson provides needed spark to lead Kentucky past Eastern Kentucky
Former Virginia Tech transfer Tayvion Robinson entered the season as the clear No. 3 option for Kentucky’s passing game. However, Robinson has quickly become a top option for NC State transfer quarterback Devin Leary. In a game where Kentucky desperately needed a lift, the super senior responded to put together one of his best performances since arriving in Lexington.
Trailing 7-0 with under a minute left until halftime, a huge 36-yard punt return set up Kentucky just outside of the red zone. Liam Coen‘s offense lifted the shutout lid on the first play of the possession. Leary found Robinson in the back of the endzone.
The Virginia Beach (Va.) Cox product was not done there. After falling behind 10-7 early in the third quarter, Kentucky faced a third-and-10 at their own 40. Leary found Robinson for a 25-yard gain across the middle to move the chains. The super senior ended the drive with another third down conversion in the low red zone to give the Wildcats a lead they would not relinquish.
On the next possession, Robinson would take a jet sweep 56 yards to set up another scoring opportunity. Kentucky scored touchdowns on four consecutive possessions to take control of the game, and Tayvion Robinson was in the center of it all of Kentucky’s 28-17 win over Eastern Kentucky on Saturday afternoon at Kroger Field.
The veteran ended the game with five receptions on five targets and accumulated 136 yards from scrimmage. When Kentucky needed to make a play in a high-leverage spot, Robinson delivered.
Kentucky’s offense went Jekyll and Hyde in Week 2
At the end of the season, the odds are very high that Eastern Kentucky will be the worst defense that Kentucky faces all season. The Colonels have all kinds of issues on that side of the ball and will give up some big totals this season.
Entering this Week 2 matchup, Kentucky had a major matchup advantage on offense. Unfortunately, Liam Coen’s unit started the game with some atrocious play.
The Wildcats did not score in any of its first six possessions and put up only 2.94 yards per play. Over the next four possessions, Kentucky scored 28 points and averaged 12.3 yards per play. That might have been five if the clock had not run out during Kentucky’s final possession that reached the red zone. Kentucky flipped a switch on Saturday, but that does not need to become a trend.
For the second week in a row, Devin Leary delivered the goods in the second half completing 10 of 13 passes for 198 yards and three touchdowns on 15.2 yards per attempt. The super senior was shredding averaging 15.9 yards per attempt on his last 14 throws with four touchdowns. Now Kentucky must figure out how to make this a first-half trend instead of a second-half trend.
There were some good things put on the field Saturday, but the consistency is not good, and the start to the game was about as ugly as football can get. There is much to work on, but this is still an offense with a ton of potential.
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