Kentucky completed bomb after bomb last season. Why isn’t the long pass working this year?

The word “hut” is barely bellowed by Kentucky’s quarterback before Garrett Johnson sees it.

“Those corners they’re just taking off back, taking off 10 yards, and I’m like, ‘Awww,’” said the senior wide receiver, some frustration in his tone on that last part.

After the Cats and quarterback Stephen Johnson had some success last season connecting on deep passes, opposing defenses aren’t leaving much to chance.

“When you’re running the ball like we do, you know that’s what you want to do: You want to run and take your shots down the field,” Coach Mark Stoops explained. But opponents have “been cutting them off and playing them much better.”

It’s one of dozens of explanations for why the deep passes haven’t been landing for the most part this season.

Last season, Kentucky was top 25 nationally in pass plays of 40 yards or more with 14. That number is just six this season.

The Cats were tied for ninth nationally on pass plays of 60-plus yards a season ago with five of them. There’s been just one this season: a 64-yarder for a touchdown to Garrett Johnson against Missouri.

So what has happened to the deep ball for Kentucky this season?

“Gosh. That’s a great question,” offensive coordinator Eddie Gran said. “I’d like to find that out. That obviously will be a study that we do after the season. We’ve had our shots. Hopefully in the last couple games, maybe we’ll hit one.”

Cats went deep vs. Cards

Kentucky had a lot of success going deep against Louisville (7-4) a season ago in the upset win at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. UK opened its first possession with a 75-yard touchdown pass from Stephen Johnson to Garrett Johnson.

The Johnsons connected again late in the first half on a 63-yard touchdown throw and catch.

It was after that game that Kentucky’s coaches talked about the multitude of things that have to go well for one of those deep passes to connect.

There’s angle and intersection, proper pass, perfect timing and wide receivers with breakaway speed who can cause problems for defensive backs. Some in the secondary are great at back-pedaling, but can’t make tight turns, so teams try to take advantage by going at those players quickly, players explained last season.

Sometimes it’s about skill and other times it’s about a little luck to make the big plays work.

“It’s kind of hard to put a finger on it,” Garrett Johnson said Tuesday. “There’s 11 guys on the field. Sometimes it’s kind of hard to connect. It’s got to be perfect.

“I think we’ve done OK … just still some small pieces for us to put some big plays and big things together.”

It’s working in practice

For whatever reason, Kentucky has lacked the necessary components to make it work this season, including missing its biggest home run threat in Jeff Badet, who graduated and transferred to Oklahoma this season.

“It’s just stuff we’ve got to continue to practice,” said Stephen Johnson, the quarterback, who made the long ball look so easy at times last year. “It’s either me throwing it too long or just the wrong angle at times. It’s just us getting back to practice with it.”

It’s especially frustrating for UK wide receivers coach Lamar Thomas.

“I’d just like to make those plays,” he said. “It’s kind of hard sometimes standing on the sideline, especially because that was my specialty (as a receiver at the University of Miami) and I can’t help.”

For what it’s worth, those plays are working in practice.

“We’d just love for them to translate to Saturday nights,” Thomas said.

Kentucky (7-4) is going to keep taking those shots, similar to the 45-yard pass from Johnson to Blake Bone last game against Georgia, and try to make something happen.

“We have to keep throwing them and eventually — just like last year toward the end of the season — we got better,” Thomas continued. “It’ll happen. We’ve got two more games left, so hopefully it will happen maybe these two games.”

This story was originally published November 22, 2017 at 3:33 PM with the headline "Kentucky completed bomb after bomb last season. Why isn’t the long pass working this year?."