‘This offense is wild.’ Kentucky football’s new OC brings different look to run game.
Normally, fans want to see what a new offensive coordinator will do with a team’s passing game.
Not me. Not when it comes to Kentucky’s new offensive boss. I’m anxious to see what Rich Scangarello will do with UK’s run game.
Here’s why: The 49-year-old Scangarello coached under Kyle Shanahan with the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers. Shanahan might be the sport’s most innovative play designer, especially in terms of running the football.
Last year, the 49ers traded up to draft North Dakota State dual-threat quarterback Trey Lance. Thus Shanahan, Scangarello and assistant offensive line coach Zach Yenser, now UK’s offensive line coach, worked on plenty of packages to utilize Lance’s strengths in the run game.
It turned out the rookie wasn’t ready to be a starting NFL quarterback. The 49ers stuck with veteran Jimmy Garoppolo, a quarterback with more a traditional dropback passer skill set.
Now Scangarello is at Kentucky, where he inherits a quarterback in Will Levis who not only has a strong arm but can be a talented and determined runner. Those ideas Scangarello had in San Francisco are likely to show up in Lexington.
“When you have a guy like Will, it opens up some doors,” Scangarello after a recent spring practice session last week. “You can be versatile. You can put pressure on teams because you can morph into pass/run athletic quarterback type things that you can do with a guy.”
To be sure, the Cats have boasted a strong rushing attack in recent years. It began with Eddie Gran’s power-based scheme. It continued under Liam Coen’s zone rushing scheme last season. When Coen opted to return to the Los Angeles Rams as offensive coordinator, UK head coach Mark Stoops hired Scangarello. After all, Coen’s boss, Sean McVay, worked with Scangarello’s boss, Shanahan, in Washington before becoming the Rams’ head coach.
There are subtle differences. As offensive coordinator with the Atlanta Falcons, where Scangarello was an offensive quality control coach, Shanahan relied heavily on quarterback Matt Ryan. As head coach in San Francisco, Shanahan has leaned toward a well-designed run game as the foundation.
“Ultimately, being a part of that is at my core. It’s why I was able to seek out Coach Shanahan to work for him,” Scangarello said. “I thought we did as good as anyone in the league. Whether you want to be like the Atlanta Falcons of ‘16 and have Matt Ryan be the MVP or you want to grind it out like we did the last two years and put people’s pressure in the run game and take care of the football and do that kind of stuff, we’ve had the flexibility based on your personnel and what you have.”
UK defensive coordinator Brad White has seen Scangarello’s stamp during spring drills.
“I think they do a very nice job run-game wise,” White said. “Last year they did as well, but again I think there are some subtle differences between the Rams and the Niners, when you talk about differences between the McVay tree and the Shanahan tree.”
UK’s Jacquez Jones put a different way.
“This offense is wild,” said the linebacker, now in his second season as a Wildcat after transferring from Ole Miss. “That’s all I can really tell you. You gotta have great eyes. I made a joke yesterday that there’s so many (eyes) crossing, even the head coach be crossing. It messes with your eyes a lot.
“This offense is going to be deadly. And they’re not even halfway through the playbook. It’s only going to be more. I feel like it’s going to be a step up from last year.”
Might finding different ways to utilize Levis’ versatility make it so?
“That’s a great question,” Scangarello said. “Yeah, there were definitely things we had explored that we would never do with a guy like Jimmy Garoppolo. Being in the pistol and things that we had done in the past together but didn’t really fit until Trey showed up.
“So yeah, we’re always evolving. … And that’s what we’ll do here, as well.”
