UK mailbag: Does Eddie Gran fully trust Terry Wilson? Are his play calls dangerous?
There’s finally a win in the books for Kentucky’s football program. It didn’t arrive in pretty wrapping paper, but a paper-bag victory is plenty good when you’re 0-2 and trying to sort out your identity as a team.
Welcome to our weekly mailbag addressing your questions about the game behind us, the game in front of us, and anything else related to (and maybe even a couple things unrelated to) UK football that come to mind each week. As the season rolls along, please direct your questions to me on Twitter (@JoshMooreHL) or email them to jmoore@herald-leader.com. We appreciate your input!
Let’s go!
(Note: Some questions edited for clarity).
We’ll start off with a quick one: I do think the game was officiated in favor of physicality. The biggest indicator? There was only one holding call the entire night (against Mississippi State in the third quarter).
A couple of dust-ups early in the game should probably have led to flags but it was refreshing to see the officials keep them in their pockets, and for the game to be played cleanly for the most part on the Wildcats’ side as a whole.
They were assessed one personal foul penalty that could have cost them late in the first half (Brandin Echols pushed a Mississippi State first down further down the field) but Josh Paschal’s interception made up for that. After committing eight penalties, accruing 81 yards worth of punishment, against Ole Miss, versus the Bulldogs UK was penalized 25 yards on three flags, their lowest total in both categories this season.
I don’t know that there’s a lack of trust in Terry Wilson to throw the ball over the middle, based on the amount of attempts he had in that area relative to his total attempts on Saturday. If a lack of trust exists, I’d pin it more on the guys in position (or who could be) to make catches.
Justin Rigg dropped a first-down catch over the middle on UK’s second series (he made up for it later, catching one across the middle going toward the outside for a first down early in the fourth quarter). On the same set of downs, Wilson was rushed out of the pocket and put a ball slightly over the hands of Allen Dailey, who was wide open across the middle. UK’s only passing touchdown was over the middle to Keaton Upshaw in the second quarter.
Later in that period, on a third-and-5, there appeared to be a good chance for A.J. Rose to reel in a wide-open catch over the middle for a first down, except he stayed closer to the scrum of blockers after busting through instead of curling up field; Wilson threw the ball down field for an incomplete pass to Josh Ali. For what it’s worth, we don’t know what Rose was asked to do on that play but, still, it was a missed opportunity.
The screen game can be incredibly effective, but its usefulness wanes if you can’t keep the defense on its toes with other elements of the pass game, and if receivers aren’t actually catching the balls (Dailey on the same series in which he was missed by Wilson earlier in the drive dropped a screen pass). With the run game stifled, too, it seemed as if Kentucky was just destined not to move the ball much regardless of how it chose to go about trying to do so.
Ali was blown up twice, if you’ll remember; the near safety in the second quarter as well as the fourth-quarter play you mentioned. In both cases, the defender there could have been blocked, but it was a tough assignment each time given the uncertainty presented by State’s odd defensive alignment. I don’t think the screen action was as prevalent last weekend as in UK’s first two games, nor was the fourth-quarter call that got Ali blown up necessarily a bad one (the earlier one, though, given the field position, was almost disastrous).
Eddie Gran is an infinitely smarter football mind than I, but I’d like to see him mix in more sweep action with Ali. I think it gives you some of the same benefits that the screens do but can potentially capitalize more on his speed.
Lots of questions from Bruce. I’ll try to hit ‘em all, quickly.
1.) State’s 3-3-5 defensive alignment is aggressive, and if you can’t capitalize on that with big plays, it can make for a long night. Kentucky just didn’t hit enough of its big-play opportunities to move the ball with any efficiency.
2.) I think it’s a mix of things but mostly, again, the uncertainty presented by the defense. Sometimes it’s just going to happen. Let’s look at the sack earlier in the fourth quarter, for example: If you count Justin Rigg, who found a body late in the play, Kentucky had six blockers, and seven if you count another potential blocker in A.J. Rose, to whom Terry Wilson faked a handoff.
Mississippi State showed four down linemen and rushed one. At the snap, Austin Dotson comes off the ground slowly and doesn’t have a defender to block and Luke Fortner dropped back; Dotson was nowhere near the pass rusher and Fortner did not get into position quickly enough to block him. Rose probably didn’t even see the defender, but if he did, a block probably would have done more harm than good. The only thing that would have prevented a sack on that play would have been if Wilson actually handed the ball to Rose, who would have had a clear runway for a first down. Maybe you could pin it on Dotson or Fortner, but I’m not certain anything on that play call was going to keep that sack from happening outside of that.
3.) The league, it’s worth noting, has never set a specific maximum percentage capacity for its member institutions; that’s up to the schools, who are supposed to adhere to local guidelines. Just about every stadium in the SEC accommodates more fans than Kroger Field, so there’s that element as well. At Texas A&M, for example, their allowable attendance is about 30,000 for a 110,000-seat stadium; that’s nearly three times Kentucky’s roughly 12,500 permitted. When empty seats outnumber those with warm bodies in them, I feel like the difference in stadium sizes is more pronounced; 110,000 is more than 61,000, but if they’re both full, is there that much of a perceptible difference?
Some of the perception is raw numbers, while the rest is a matter of groupings; if fans aren’t socially distancing as asked, then it’s gonna feel like there are a lot more people around. And, based on still images, there appears to be plenty of social non-distancing happening at college football games across the country. (I’m sure they all live together.)
4.) No one will use a redshirt this season, as this is a free year of eligibility for everyone on the roster.
dlevans5: How many snaps did Justin Rogers play and how did he do?
Rogers was among several freshmen who saw the field. We don’t get exact snap counts shared with us, but I recall him being in for at least three consecutive plays in the first half (and later confirmed that recollection through replay). It took two guys to block him on all three snaps, but Mississippi State also was able to move the ball relatively easily on those same plays, too.
Mark Stoops seemed glad to get those guys some run. I thought Rogers looked solid enough for a true freshman, but it’s hard to read much into just those three plays.
Next game
Kentucky at No. 18 Tennessee
When: Noon Saturday
TV: SEC Network
Records: Kentucky 1-2, Tennessee 2-1
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Series: Tennessee leads 81-25-9
Last meeting: Tennessee won 17-13 on Nov. 9, 2019, in Lexington.
This story was originally published October 13, 2020 at 4:06 PM.
