UK wasn’t well prepared at Missouri last year. ‘That’s not going to happen again.’
Upon reflection, Mark Stoops was surprised that Kentucky’s play-calling was as balanced as it ended up — 34 rushes, 33 pass attempts — in a 45-10 win over Louisiana Monroe on Saturday.
It was the amount of passes that threw him off.
“We were in our staff meeting after that, and (offensive coordinator) Liam (Coen) told me that and I said, ‘Really?’” Kentucky’s head football coach told reporters during his Monday news conference. “’It felt like 90 percent pass to me.’”
Stoops wasn’t complaining, but alluding to the direction in which the Cats’ offense went the last couple of seasons. The 33 pass attempts on Saturday would have been the most in all but one game, UK’s season opener at Auburn, last year, and the 22 completions would have been the most in all but that same game.
“It just goes to show you where our mindset has been, you know what I mean?” Stoops said. “That’s a true story. I was like, ‘Wow.’”
Kentucky isn’t meticulously tracking play calls or entering games with a directive of hitting a certain measure of balance. Coen, in his first season coaching the offense, has said he wants to dictate to the defense, rather than taking what the opponent gives him and his personnel; sometimes that might show up as a steady stream of carries for Chris Rodriguez, other times quarterback Will Levis might be asked to throw the ball 45 times.
“We’re looking to win the game and, as Hayden Fry would say, ‘Scratch where it itches,’” said Stoops, referencing his own college coach at Iowa.
The Wildcats weren’t able to scratch many itches against Missouri last year in a 20-10 loss that saw them get out-witted by a first-year head coach, Eli Drinkwitz, and outmatched physically at the line of scrimmage. Kentucky last October in Columbia put up just 145 yards of offense, its worst output in a season wrought with lackluster totals, and allowed the Tigers to convert 10 of 20 third-down attempts and four of their five tries on fourth down.
The teams meet again Saturday night at Kroger Field.
“They had a lot of drives a year ago where they worked for ‘em,” Stoops said. “They had 20 points but it felt like 40 by the way they controlled the ball. ... We gotta do a better job.”
The Cats, meanwhile, were 2-for-9 on their own third-down chances. Their inability to produce in the passing game — Terry Wilson and Joey Gatewood combined to go 5-for-14 for 50 yards and a touchdown — contributed to that meager effort. So did emotional circumstances: that was the first game for which former offensive line coach John Schlarman wasn’t present.
Stoops called UK’s physicality against Missouri last year “uncharacteristic,” a point that will be hammered home all week in practice. He admired his team’s effort in that realm against ULM, even if at times it wasn’t as clean as he’d like for it to have been. Kentucky’s defense finished with six sacks against the Warhawks — putting it 10 short of matching the entire season total from 2020 — and allowed its fewest yards in a game (87) since the 1988 season opener.
Mizzou, coming off a 34-24 win over Central Michigan, isn’t ULM, which lost its 12th straight game going back to the 2019 season. The Tigers snapped a five-game losing streak to UK last year and will come into Lexington looking to keep the series’ momentum in their direction by winning the first game played between Southeastern Conference teams this season.
Stoops can’t guarantee what UK’s play distribution will look like on Saturday. But he can control something.
“I sense that they were much more prepared last year than we were, and that’s on me,” Stoops said. “I can promise you that’s not going to happen again.”
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Notes
▪ Former Moore High School star J.J. Weaver, who’s nine months removed from an ACL surgery, was on a limited snap count against ULM and got in the game just 14 times. He had two sacks, leading the Wildcats, and showed the kind of speed on the edge that had defensive coordinator Brad White talking him up as having the potential to be a dominant player in the SEC.
“I’m very pleased with J.J., no setbacks,” Stoops said Monday. “He felt good. He’s getting confidence. We’ll see where we go from here.”
▪ Stoops also was happy with the play of Davonte Robinson on Saturday. The former Henry Clay High School star suffered a torn quad ahead of the 2019 season and, while he played in every game, didn’t look quite like himself last year. Playing predominantly as a nickelback, he was in on six tackles (tied with linebackers DeAndre Square and Jordan Wright for second most on Saturday behind Josh Paschal, who had eight) and had one for a 1-yard loss. “He really did a good job for us when we needed him to,” Stoops said. “It’s a key position for us and he did some good things.”
▪ Only 47,693 people turned out to see Kentucky’s new offense make its debut. That’s the lowest turnout for a season opener during Stoops’ tenure outside of last season, when capacity was restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic (attendance was announced at 12,000 for the 2020 opener against Ole Miss). No school in the SEC that opened at home sold out its opener, but several came close. UK was at 78.19 percent of its capacity.
UK-Mizzou is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff. The Cats’ last home game against the Tigers was also a 7:30 start; 48,446 showed up for that one on a rainy night. UK won 29-7.
“No excuses, we need that place packed,” Stoops said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Next game
Missouri at Kentucky
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
TV: SEC Network
Records: Missouri 1-0 (0-0 SEC), Kentucky 1-0 (0-0)
