Barion Brown’s big night vs. Georgia reinforces need for UK to retain its ‘free agents’
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Game day: No. 1 Georgia 16, Kentucky 6
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Georgia football game at Kroger Field in Lexington.
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When scoring six points in a loss can be seen as offensive progress, it might be more of a statement about how bad things have been than where things are going.
But for Kentucky football, there were legitimate reasons to be optimistic about the future of its offense after a 16-6 loss to No. 1 Georgia if you squinted hard enough.
Kentucky mounted a 99-yard touchdown drive against the nation’s best defense in the fourth quarter. It reached the red zone two other times without scoring. But the real reason for hope was the fact that four of the five players who caught a pass for the Wildcats were freshmen. Four of the five offensive linemen who combined for perhaps the much-maligned group’s best performance of the season have eligibility remaining.
“We know that there are some really talented players there and some good players,” Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops said. “We’re in this moment now, you know what I mean? So I would like to stay right here. I just was accused of hyping up this team in the summer. I don’t need to start hyping up (freshmen) — you know what I mean? I need to stay right here with this football team and getting this team ready.”
Stoops has reason to be cautious about dishing out public praise.
One touchdown was not enough to quiet the growing number of fans calling for a change at offensive coordinator. Kentucky has still not scored more than 21 points in an SEC game this season, and the red-zone struggles that have plagued Rich Scangarello’s offense all season were on display again.
For all the optimism generated when freshman wide receiver Barion Brown tallied 10 catches for 145 yards and one touchdown, there was surely a healthy since of dread from some fans watching the performance, too, with the knowledge that traditional powerhouse programs are likely already reaching out behind the scenes to gauge the interest of Brown and other young Kentucky contributors in entering the transfer portal next month.
Even Stoops described his roster as “85 free agents” recently, acknowledging the reality that his staff will have to spend time re-recruiting its own players in the coming weeks.
“I couldn’t be more excited for the future because we’ve got some 18- and 19-year-olds out there that are getting a ton of experience,” Scangarello said. “Their best days are ahead of them. That excites me.”
If those best days come at Kentucky, Saturday’s performance could be remembered as something of a coming out party for the future of the Wildcats’ offense.
Freshman tight end Josh Kattus, who has seen his role expand from blocking specialist to receiving threat in recent weeks, caught two passes for 29 yards. Freshman wide receiver Dane Key, who already broke the school record for touchdown catches by a freshman, added two receptions for 23 yards. Redshirt freshman tight end Jordan Dingle dropped two passes but continued to show promise with one tough 8-yard grab through traffic.
The presence of those young receivers should be a major selling point as Kentucky looks to the transfer portal to find a quarterback to replace Will Levis, who is projected as a first-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.
But Stoops will have to decide what style of offense he wants to run moving forward to convince both the young receivers and any transfer additions to sign on for next season.
If Kentucky can build on the strides made against Georgia with a strong showing in the Governor’s Cup rivalry against Louisville, would that be enough evidence to support keeping Scangarello, who is in the first year of a three-year contract? Even if he decides to make a coordinator change, will Stoops stick with the NFL scheme Kentucky has used the last two seasons? Or is Stoops ready to try something different, decreasing the emphasis on sustained drives and winning the time of possession battle?
“It’s a young team across the board, (an) inexperienced team across the board,” Levis said. “I know those guys are itching to get more targets and get more catches, but each week you get more glimpses of what they’re able to do and their potential. Some guys that haven’t really even seen the field too much I know can be big players for this team.
“They’ve got to just keep trusting the process. One of the principles this program is built on is recruiting and developing. These kids, they just need a little more developing and they’re going to be A1 players for us. It’s really cool to have young guys. Would have liked to have had them when they’re a little bit more experienced and seasoned, but it’s been great to play with them.”
Surely the SEC powers who are working to unseat Georgia from its spot atop the league took notice of how Brown was able to win one-on-one battles against the Bulldogs’ vaunted defense. Brown received recruiting interest from Alabama out of high school. The Nashville native is surely a player of interest to his home-state Tennessee Volunteers, as well.
But in breaking Kentucky’s record for catches by a freshman (41), Brown has already proven he can be the focal point of the Wildcats’ offense moving forward. Kentucky coaches will undoubtedly remind him the grass is not always greener elsewhere. The athletics department has begun promoting a new name, image and likeness collective that could generate the type of endorsement opportunities essential to keeping Brown and the other freshmen in Lexington, too.
“It’s been important for me to make sure I get him to keep his head up and keep his confidence up to know he’s a really special player and we’re going to target him and his big plays are going to come,” Levis said. “I’m just glad that he’s been able to keep that right mindset throughout the last few weeks, trusting us, trusting the calls and trusting my throws to get him the ball down the field like that. It was really cool to see him go up and make a few of those plays today.”
Brown, who was not available for interviews after the game, caught three passes of at least 30 yards in the game. He scored Kentucky’s only touchdown on a 9-yard pass from Levis on a fourth-and-2 play in the fourth quarter.
After making an impact early in the season as a kick returner, Brown has been largely neutralized in that area by SEC opponents kicking away from him. Kentucky has made a concentrated effort to get him the ball in space on screen passes, hoping to let his speed takeover, but Saturday represented his most success to date on deep passes.
There have been youthful mistakes from Brown this year. In the loss to Vanderbilt, he cut sideways on a screen pass instead of following his blockers. The first play of the Georgia game saw him flagged for signaling for a fair catch that left Kentucky with the ball at its own 4-yard line.
But it’s impossible to consider Brown’s freshman season anything but a roaring success. Now Stoops must prove to Brown and the other young playmakers he will run an offense that showcases their skills and can attract the level of quarterback needed to replace Levis.
“Some of the great receivers you run across, they don’t have to practice things a lot to get it right,” Scangarello said. “He’s one of those guys you can literally show this is what DeSean Jackson did on this play, this is what this guy did, and he can go out and do it. His mental and football IQ is very high. He retains things well. He’s a football player at heart.
“He’s going to be a really special player here for a long time.”
Next game
Louisville at Kentucky
When: 3 p.m. Saturday
TV: SEC Network
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Records: Louisville 7-4 (4-4 ACC), Kentucky 6-5 (3-5 SEC)
Series: Kentucky leads 18-15
Last meeting: Kentucky won 52-21 on Nov. 27, 2021, at Louisville
This story was originally published November 19, 2022 at 9:19 PM.
