It's good news, bad news for Wildcats
When the season started, the question was the Kentucky offense.
We're now four games in with the SEC big boys looming — and Kentucky is in the ultimate glass half full/glass half empty scenario.
In the first football game ever between the schools, the Wildcats whipped overmatched Western Kentucky 41-3 Saturday night before a blue-tinged Commonwealth Stadium crowd of 70,731 dotted with a lot of Hilltopper red.
The good news for UK fans hoping to see the historically rare third straight Kentucky bowl trip is that they saw offensive improvement from the team that was outgained by Middle Tennessee in its prior outing.
Glass half-full: There were 41 points and 398 total yards vs. WKU.
"We made some progress," UK Coach Rich Brooks said. "Did we make as much as I wanted? No."
Glass half-empty: Both Indiana (450 yards) and Alabama (557) gashed the Hilltoppers defense worse than did UK.
Glass half-full: Kentucky ran for 147 yards after halftime.
Said Brooks: "I thought we got a pretty good running game going after halftime."
Glass half-empty. UK finished with 216 rushing yards against a defense that surrendered 297 to Indiana and 281 to Alabama.
"The thing that was disappointing to me was that we had to spread the field to be able to run on them," UK offensive coordinator Joker Phillips said. "Sometimes, when everyone in the stands and everyone on the other side knows you have to run it, you need to be able to line up and run it.
"We couldn't do that tonight. That was disappointing."
Glass half-full: After throwing high to E.J. Adams, creating a tipped ball and ending up with his first interception of the year in the first half, UK quarterback Mike Hartline settled in and again played well (19-for-30-1-172 with a touchdown).
In his last outing against Middle Tennessee, Hartline struggled with hitting receivers in stride on short passes in the flats. Against WKU, he was flawless in that regard.
"That was a big emphasis in practice," Hartline said of the flare passes. "I felt good on those tonight."
That shows a young quarterback getting better.
Glass half-empty: After all the emphasis on improved play at receiver following the MTSU game, Kentucky still had four drops of easily catchable balls in the first half alone.
"Did our receivers progress to the level I want?" Brooks asked himself. "No. I did think it was better."
Glass half-full: Third- string tailback Alfonso Smith got to start the second half and ripped off a 17-yard scamper and a 35-yard TD run the first two times he touched the ball.
Second-string tailback Derrick Locke showed his big-play explosiveness with a 100-yard kickoff return TD.
Fourth-stringer Moncell Allen ran for 41 yards in the fourth quarter alone.
Glass half-empty. At least in terms of yards per carry, starting tailback Tony Dixon (3.5 yards a rush) was again not as productive as the backs — Smith (11.2); Allen (5.9) and Locke (4.2) — who play behind him.
"That (back rotation) isn't going to change," Locke said. "Sometimes you feel like you're getting in the zone, and boom, you come out. But there is no point in anyone whining about it. You just have to play well when you get a chance."
Glass half-full: With eight straight SEC games ahead and at least two wins needed for bowl eligibility, Kentucky has a defense that, while it still needs to prove itself against top foes, I think is going to prove to be the best UK has had since the 1977 10-1 team.
A team with a top defense doesn't need the offensive fireworks Andre Woodson and crew put up a year ago to win.
Glass half-empty: Kentucky enters conference play with the same number of proven wideouts with which it entered the season: One, Dicky Lyons Jr.
It has not been able to consistently spring its more explosive running backs. It keeps getting starting offensive linemen hurt (right tackle Justin Jeffries going down against Western).
It's getting ready to launch a four-game stretch that includes three of the best defenses — Alabama, South Carolina and Florida — in the SEC.
"We're not where I'd hoped we'd be," Brooks said. "I do think we made improvement as an offense in this game."
Right now, Kentucky has a glass half-full, glass half-empty kind of offense. I fear it's going to take a cup running over to have a chance at Alabama.
Reach Mark Story at (859) 231-3230, (800) 950-6397, Ext. 3230, or at mstory@herald-leader.com.
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