In 2019, UK football is providing fun in a most surprising way
From the time Hal Mumme brought the Air Raid to Kentucky in 1997, the prevailing football ethos in these parts has been constant:
Throwing the football equals party-level fun.
Running the ball is about as enjoyable as tax preparation.
That sentiment is why the “Lynn Bowden at quarterback” segment of the 2019 Kentucky Wildcats football season has felt subversive.
For those with an open mind, Bowden and the Cats are putting the fun back in the run.
On Saturday, Kentucky went full ground and pound on poor Vanderbilt (2-8, 1-6 SEC) in a 38-14 thrashing of the Commodores. The Cats (5-5, 3-5 SEC) ran for a robust 401 yards against listing Vandy.
The UK school record of 446 rushing yards in a game, set against Tennessee Tech in 1951, would likely have fallen had Mark Stoops not cleared his bench in the fourth quarter.
Kentucky also just missed having a historic three 100-yard rushers in the game. In the latest compelling chapter of “wide receiver makes good playing quarterback,” Bowden ran for 110 yards and a touchdown.
Meanwhile, redshirt freshmen running backs Christopher Rodriguez (129 yards and two TDs) and Kavosiey Smoke (95 yards, one TD) ran past, over and around hapless Vanderbilt.
“They both have been getting better,” Edde Gran, the UK offensive play caller and running backs coach, said Saturday of the two freshmen. “They ran awfully hard today.”
In sports, success is a prerequisite for fun. Yet the fact that Kentucky has run for at least 297 yards in four of the five games Bowden has started at QB is only part of what has been entertaining to watch.
While essentially running an option offense, Kentucky is “tricking out” its attack through creative use of formations.
On one play in the first quarter Saturday, Kentucky lined up with four wide receivers in a tight box on the far right of its formation.
That created a schematic advantage for UK on the left side of its line.
Wildcats running back A.J. Rose then took a handoff, whipped off of left tackle and went on a 49-yards jaunt (a play you likely don’t remember because Rose fumbled the ball on the ensuing snap and Vandy’s Allan George returned it 67 yards for a touchdown).
Kentucky has made ample use of a fake pitchout, that turns into a counter play when Bowden instead keeps the ball and runs it against the grain.
Heck, a couple of times on Saturday UK lined up with two backs in the backfield, one on either side of Bowden, and ran the pure veer option.
Somewhere, Mike Fanuzzi, Sonny Collins and Steve Campassi — backfield stars of 1970s, Fran Curci-coached UK teams that employed the veer to great effect — must have been smiling.
Kentucky is now 3-2 in SEC games since installing Bowden at QB. What’s impressive about that is it is not like the UK offensive staff spent its offseason brainstorming on the best use of veer and wishbone concepts.
Kentucky entered 2019 planning on placing a greater emphasis on its passing game in Terry Wilson’s second season as its starting quarterback.
Once injuries sidelined both Wilson and his only experienced backup, Sawyer Smith, UK was forced into full improvisation mode.
If you define good coaching as the ability to take the talent you have available and figure out a way to make it work, then you should tip your figurative cap to — wait for it — the much-criticized Gran and the remainder of the Kentucky offensive staff.
“”You see (Gran), being the veteran he is, adapting to the players we have,” Stoops said Monday at his weekly news conference at Kroger Field. “... I appreciate our coaches being able to adapt and finding ways to move the ball.”
In future seasons, UK will need to balance its offense to move the program upward.
Since Gran and co-offensive coordinator Darin Hinshaw came south to Kentucky from the University of Cincinnati in 2016, they have twice now had to revamp their entire offense in-season due to losing their starting quarterback to injury.
In 2016, pocket-passing Drew Barker’s back injury led to the installation of dual-threat Stephen Johnson at QB and launched the Benny Snell power-running era.
This year, the loss of Wilson and injuries to Smith have led to Bowden turning in an epic individual effort — and UK finding an unexpected offensive identity as an option team.
If only the Cats had gotten the ball into the end zone at the end of the Tennessee game rather than losing by four after failing on fourth-and-goal from the 2, one suspects that many more UK backers would admit that in 2019 there has been fun in the run for Kentucky.
This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 5:36 PM.
