Saturday’s win over Louisville shows what Mark Stoops has built at Kentucky
If you’re a Kentucky football fan, you were told it couldn’t be done.
Not this way. Not at this school. You’ll never be able to recruit the linemen big enough and talented enough to consistently knock people off the football. So they said. When you’re a Kentucky, you’ll never be tough enough or rough enough or physical enough to run the football the majority of the time and beat people consistently.
You need a gimmick. That’s what you need. So they said. You need the Air Raid. Or the I-Bone. Or the triple option. You need to spread opponents out and keep them guessing. You need to trick them.
Oh yeah, said Mark Stoops, we’ll see about that.
Kentucky’s 45-13 bludgeoning of Louisville in Saturday’s annual Governor’s Cup game at Kroger Field was not just a testament to the ability of wide receiver-turned-quarterback Lynn Bowden or the creativity of offensive coordinator Eddie Gran or the growth of a young, improving defense, it was a testament to the program Stoops has built in his seven years on the job.
We’re talking a rough, tough, rock ’em-sock ’em, win-it-in-the-trenches, bully-ball type of a program. A physical program.
“You’ve heard me say this before,” Stoops has said many times, “If you aren’t physical in this league (i.e. the SEC) then you don’t have a chance.”
Admit it, when Kentucky had the football Saturday, every single person inside the cold, wet and miserable stadium knew what was coming. You, inside your warm, dry home watching on television knew what was coming. Yours truly, sitting high up in the warm, dry press box knew what was coming.
“I can tell you what’s coming,” said Gran afterward.
Yet few could stop it. Certainly not Louisville. At times, the visiting Cardinals had eight, nine, 10 people crowding the line of scrimmage to stop the Kentucky running game. And the Cards still couldn’t stop it.
Kentucky running plays: 40.
Kentucky pass plays: 2.
Kentucky rushing yards: School-record 517.
The Cats ripped off runs of 70, 60, 46, 64, 40 and 32 yards. They averaged a staggering 12.9 yards per carry. The amazing thing was this was not some sort of aberration. This was the same offense that rushed for 401 yards at Vanderbilt, for a school-record 462 last week against UT Martin and then topped that by over 50 yards on Saturday.
Obviously, Bowden deserves tremendous credit for that. He rushed for 284 yards and four touchdowns Saturday, bringing his average at quarterback to a ridiculous 162.3 rushing yards per game. (“He’s the best football player in the nation,” said UK recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow.) Credit offensive line coach John Schlarman, who despite fighting cancer, guided a unit that has risen to the occasion and then some. Credit Gran, who stuck with the switch even when his head coach would ask, “Are you sure?” because he believed that with this group UK could run the football and win games.
“It’s a mentality,” said the offensive coordinator. “That starts with the head coach.”
That would be Stoops. From the first day the Youngstown, Ohio, native arrived on campus, the former defensive coordinator has preached his desire to build a tough, physical team on both sides of the football.
“We do want to go back to the forward pass,” Stoops joked Saturday. “I mean, I am in Kentucky. I do understand. I do understand the legacy of Jared (Lorenzen) and Tim Couch and so on.”
But he added this: “There was one other gentleman that was a pretty good coach and that was kind of physical himself, right, and I’m not dare going to mention his name. I’m not saying that. But back in ‘49 and ‘50 and ‘51, they were pretty tough and pretty physical, as well.”
His name was Bear Bryant. That was a different time, of course, and there will never be another Bear Bryant. But through all the offensive fads that have come and gone since, there’s still something to be said for blocking and tackling and good old-fashioned physical football.
That’s how Mark Stoops is winning at Kentucky.
And they said it couldn’t be done.
This story was originally published November 30, 2019 at 6:08 PM.
