UK’s offense not in ‘panic mode,’ but it has to get better, coaches say
Maybe it’s the little things?
Maybe it’s the big, explosive things?
Maybe it’s about having too many plays?
Maybe it’s about not having enough?
Nearly every rock has been flipped in Kentucky’s quest to shake off its recent issues on offense.
“We’re trying our best,” tight end C.J. Conrad said after Kentucky’s 24-7 loss at Tennessee on Saturday night. “I hope everyone knows that. … We’ve been trying extremely hard to find something that’s going to work for this offense.”
Something has to change for the Cats’ offense, which is the lowest-scoring in the Southeastern Conference at just 22.9 points per game. Only 20 other teams in the country have had more trouble putting points on the board this season than Kentucky.
Which caused one radio show host to ask Mark Stoops on Monday if it was time to rethink Kentucky’s offensive scheme with just two games left in the regular season.
“No, that wouldn’t be a very good idea,” Stoops said at the news conference to discuss UK’s upcoming game with Middle Tennessee on Saturday. “That would be called panic mode.”
In between those measured thoughts, the Cats’ head coach mentioned that UK is two wins away from having its best regular-season record since 1977 and that Kentucky’s offense has done plenty of good things to put it in position to win seven games this season and five in the league.
But after the loss to the Vols, Kentucky’s coaches discussed that while maybe everything doesn’t need to change down the stretch, some things do.
“There’s something that’s always not right, and no explosive plays is really killing us right now,” offensive coordinator Eddie Gran said. UK is second from the bottom of the league in explosive plays with just 121 of 10-plus yards.
And 60 percent of those came in the first five games of the season.
Gran added: “If you don’t get explosive plays, you have to try to drive the ball 15, it’s hard to do. I’ve got to get that created now.”
Without explosive plays, Kentucky’s offense has to find a way to put together long, sustained drives, Stoops said on Monday.
“The complete game-changers, we don’t have a lot of them on offense,” the head coach said. “We’ve gotta make sure that we execute and we’re very efficient in what we do.”
And Kentucky is killing a chance at those long drives lately with self-inflicted mistakes including costly penalties, dropped passes (there were five versus the Volunteers, Stoops said), and an issue with players not seeming to be on the same page.
“We’re really killing ourselves offensively right now,” Conrad said. “On offense, you need all 11 guys to be on the same page and all it takes is one guy and a play doesn’t work and we’ve been having a lot of that lately.”
It’s easy to lay the blame on the wide receivers or the offensive line or a first-year quarterback in Terry Wilson, but the tape didn’t show that after the loss on Saturday.
“That’s one of those games where it is aggravating to everybody because when we had guys open the protection wasn’t there,” Stoops said. “When we had protection, we didn’t get guys open or complete it.”
Which brings Kentucky back to having more questions than answers right now.
But don’t expect any dramatic overhaul before the game with the Blue Raiders or Louisville. Stoops won’t have any of that talk.
“We got a pretty good league don’t we?” the coach said. “Fourteen teams in this league that are pretty good programs, and I think three of them have a better record than us. I don’t think it’s time to scrap everything.”
Notes
Kentucky will honor 16 seniors on Saturday before the Middle Tennessee game, according to the pre-game notes put out on Monday morning.
Those players include linebackers Josh Allen and Jordan Jones, offensive linemen George Asafo-Adjei and Bunchy Stallings, defensive linemen Tymere Dubose and Adrian Middleton, defensive backs Derrick Baity, Mike Edwards, Darius West, Chris Westry and Lonnie Johnson, wide receivers Dorian Baker and David Bouvier, tight end C.J. Conrad, and specialists Miles Butler and Tristan Yeomans.
Two other seniors, running back Sihiem King and linebacker Kengera Daniel, have opted to redshirt this season under the new NCAA rule that allows players who play in fewer than four games to get another full season of eligibility.
Normally there are a few players with a season of eligibility left that opt to move on, but not this season, UK confirmed.
▪ Kentucky’s game time and television channel for the season finale at Louisville was set on Monday. The Cats will play under the lights of Cardinal Stadium on Nov. 24, kicking off at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.
▪ Senior wide receiver Dorian Baker did not make the trip with UK to Tennessee. “He was suspended for that game,” Stoops said on Monday of the senior wide receiver who has started in every game this season except the last two. “He’ll be back this week.”
Next game
Middle Tennessee at Kentucky
Noon Saturday (SEC Network Alternate)