Did Kentucky’s offseason roster management lead to one of Wildcats’ biggest problems?
For the second consecutive week it is difficult to find many positives from Kentucky football’s performance in a loss to a division rival.
The Wildcats head into their off week looking for answers after a 38-21 loss to Missouri. Kentucky started fast, dominating the first quarter, but quickly fell apart after a Missouri fake punt produced a touchdown in the second quarter.
Were there any positives to be found in the performance? The weekly UK football stock watch takes a closer look at who is rising and who is falling for the Wildcats after Week 7.
FALLING: Wide receivers
It is time to question Kentucky’s offseason roster management.
In the era for one-time free transfers and name, image and likeness guarantees, coaches spent most of the second half of the 2022 season and the offseason doing everything possible to make sure then-freshmen Barion Brown and Dane Key knew their importance to the future of the program. The talent on display during their debut seasons made it easy to understand that priority, but that strategy also sent a clear message to Kentucky’s other receivers they might need to look elsewhere for featured roles.
Six wide receivers left the program via the transfer portal in the offseason, leaving Kentucky with just two little-used returning scholarship players behind Brown, Key and fellow starter Tayvion Robinson. Kentucky signed three high school wide receivers in its 2023 class, but only one has earned a spot in the rotation so far.
With so little depth, UK coaches have had little choice but to stick with Brown and Key even as they have struggled with dropped passes and failed to show the jump one would hope from a player’s first season to his second. Robinson started the season on a high note but like last season has seen his production drop in SEC play. Nagging injuries to Brown and Robinson have only further complicated the situation.
Hope for increased contributions from the backups was dashed against Missouri when freshman Anthony Brown-Stephens dropped two passes on what would have been third down conversions. He rallied to catch a 4-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter, but considering coaches have said he also struggled with drops in spring practice, he does not look like the solution to that issue.
The wide receiver room would certainly have more options with former Wildcat Chris Lewis, who has tallied 15 catches for 364 yards and four touchdowns in seven games at Troy this season, or DeMarcus Harris, who has 11 catches for 118 yards and one touchdown at Marshall, still on the roster.
“We’ve got who we’ve got, and we want to get those guys better,” offensive coordinator Liam Coen said. “We’re not giving up on anybody. We’re trying to get everybody better every day, but we’ve got to start throwing and catching the football better. We’ve got to make sure we’re throwing the ball to guys that are catching the football, but I believe in those guys. I believe in them. We’re not going to give up on them, but it’s frustrating. It’s hard.”
FALLING: Punting
Somewhat overshadowed by the variety of miscues in the last two losses has been the inability for the punt team to help Kentucky flip the field.
Punter Wilson Berry now ranks seventh of the seven qualified punters in the SEC in average yards per punt (40.11). In the last two games, Berry has averaged 33.7 yards per punt.
“It has frustrated me as well,” Stoops said of the punting. “And, so, you know, we have to look at all options and we will see.”
Berry, a former Australian Rules Football player, was signed to continue to Australian punter pipeline that sent Ray Guy Award winner Max Duffy to Kentucky, but new special teams coordinator Jay Boulware has abandoned the rugby style punting favored by Australians for a traditional pocket punting scheme. Berry still won the starting job in preseason camp, but he has looked out of place in that style.
Redshirt freshman Jackson Smith is listed as the backup on UK’s depth chart, but kickoff specialist Chance Poore has also punted before. It does not seem like a return to the rugby style punting is an option.
“Some people are just doing what’s trendy in rollout punting and all that stuff, and then there’s others that are actually developing and coaching these punters up and helping them to have a chance to compete at the next level,” Boulware told the Herald-Leader at preseason media day. “That’s kind of what this program is about. Not kind of — that is what this program is about.”
RISING: Ray Davis
For the second consecutive week success from Kentucky’s star running back brought its own frustrations because the offense seemed to abandon the run game too early, but Davis’s third 100-yard rushing game of the season at least deserves mention as a positive.
Davis leads the SEC in rushing yards per game (111.6). He ranks second nationally in touchdowns scored (13) after recording his fifth receiving touchdown of the season.
With five regular season games left, Davis is officially on record watch. The UK single-season record for touchdowns scored is 19 (Benny Snell, 2017). The program’s single-season rushing yards record is 1,600 (Moe Williams, 1995). Davis is on pace to finish with 1,450 rushing yards and 24 total touchdowns in a 13-game season that includes a bowl game.
Next game
No. 17 Tennessee at Kentucky
When: 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28
TV: ESPN
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Records: Tennessee 5-1 (2-1 SEC), Kentucky 5-2 (2-2)
Series: Tennessee leads 83-26-9
Last meeting: Tennessee won 44-6 on Oct. 29, 2022, in Knoxville
This story was originally published October 16, 2023 at 6:45 AM.