‘I’m pleased with what I’m seeing.’ Kentucky QBs growing into new offense.
Kentucky’s receivers, as a whole, are probably the position group with the most to prove in 2021. But quarterback’s a super close second.
For the first time since 2018, UK enters a campaign not knowing who its starting quarterback will be. Terry Wilson won the job ahead of that season, which turned out to be a historic one. Because of injury, three additional quarterbacks started over the last three years but the job was firmly Wilson’s.
Only one of the quarterbacks currently on campus, Joey Gatewood, has started a game for UK. Beau Allen made brief appearances in two separate games last year. Reading much of anything into how they performed last season is somewhat trivial; they’re getting a crash course this spring in new offensive coordinator Liam Coen’s system, which puts an increased premium on footwork and has them taking snaps predominantly under center rather than in a shotgun formation.
Through three practices, they’ve adapted well.
“Our quarterbacks, they really know where to go with the football,” head coach Mark Stoops said following Saturday’s scrimmage, in which players wore pads. “Our completion percentage is extremely high, which I really like to see. Very few drops, very few footballs on the ground. I’m pleased with what I’m seeing.”
Gatewood is not a stranger to learning a new offense or coaching at the quarterback position. At Auburn, where he played eight games between the 2018 and 2019 seasons before transferring to Kentucky, he had two offensive coordinators: Chip Lindsey, who left to become the head coach at Troy following the 2018 season, and Kenny Dillingham, who bolted for Florida State following the 2019 campaign.
Coen is Gatewood’s fourth coordinator in as many seasons at the college level.
“From Auburn to Kentucky, Kentucky last season to now with a new OC, I’m putting everything together and really just trying to make it one,” Gatewood said. “I feel like if I could get that done and I keep on striving every day as well as my teammates with me, I think we’ll be pretty good.”
Snapping from under center has been an adjustment — he couldn’t recall the last time he did it before Coen arrived — but Gatewood was blunt when asked if it was difficult.
“No,” he said before grinning. “… With Coach Coen just teaching me fundamentals under center, getting more comfortable day by day by day, I feel good with it right now. I ‘m getting more confident with it so by the time (the season) comes, I’ll be good. No worries.”
Allen, a former Lexington Catholic standout who’s in his second year in the program and listed as a sophomore on the spring roster, said he probably took some snaps under center in high school but it’s otherwise foreign for him, too. Though he’s starting closer to the line of scrimmage, he said there’s not much difference in how the defense looks, visually.
Footwork, on the other hand, has been the biggest struggle for Allen. Coen during UK’s first week of practice spoke about the importance of getting every quarterback having a level of “sameness,” particularly when it comes to their feet, which take on a greater role in terms of how a passer goes through their progressions after coming out from under center versus taking a shotgun snap.
Allen called it “a good change,” and that it will ultimately improve the timing between UK’s quarterbacks and receivers.
“I feel a lot more agile in the past month just learning this offense and practicing, even before spring practice started, with the quarterbacks and running backs,” Allen said. “We’ve been working at it. It helps you with your terminology and your mind and just football in general. You see all the teams, what they do on Sundays, and now we can compare a lot better.”
Gatewood said he and the rest of UK’s offensive players are taking pride in their new attack, and embracing a spring session that’s more about education than evaluation.
It doesn’t hurt having the principal as your primary teacher, too; Coen is Kentucky’s quarterbacks coach.
“It just creates a stronger bond between us and between the quarterbacks as a group,” Gatewood said. “Getting to know him and how he thinks and his processes, I think that’s a really big strength to it. I’m really excited to continue working with him and expanding my knowledge and expanding my game. And I know the other quarterbacks in the room are very excited, too.”
This story was originally published March 23, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
