Can UK football break through in 2023? These 5 things will have to happen.
Kentucky football backers began last season with the belief that 2022 would be the year when the Wildcats program took it to “the next level.”
Alas, Mark Stoops and troops instead slipped back, going from 10-3 in 2021 to 7-6 last season.
“There was something that was just a bit off this year from time to time,” Stoops said on New Year’s Eve after the Wildcats had ended their 2022 season with a 21-0 loss to Iowa in the TransPerfect Music City Bowl.
Looking forward, Stoops said, “We have a very good football team that wants to come back hungry.”
Is there a chance that Kentucky backers were a year early in setting their hopes for a breakthrough season?
With Alabama coming on the 2023 UK slate, the schedule will be much tougher this fall. Still, if Stoops and Co. can successfully navigate these five issues, the Cats could give the Big Blue Nation the feel-good fall it expected last year.
Issue one: Fixing the offensive line
No position group more symbolized the uptick in UK football fortunes in the Stoops era than “The Big Blue Wall.” That’s why it was so jarring when the Kentucky offensive line struggled so in 2022.
Only two FBS teams, Colorado State (59) and Akron (55), allowed more quarterback sacks than Kentucky (47) last season.
It was not a lot better in the run game. The 116.2 rushing yards per game Kentucky averaged in 2022 were easily the least of the Stoops era by more than 30 yards.
There’s a reason that Liam Coen, Kentucky’s old and now new offensive coordinator, proclaimed during a video news conference Thursday that fixing the offensive line is “the No. 1 priority when we get there. It’s a unit we need to address, and address quickly.”
The reconstruction of the Big Blue Wall has begun in the transfer portal with the additions of former Northern Illinois left tackle Marques Cox and former Alabama guard Tanner Bowles.
The versatile Kenneth Horsey’s announcement that he would use his “free COVID-19 year” and return in 2023 means Kentucky has four offensive line starters back.
If Cox can hold down the left tackle spot, it would allow Horsey to shift from that position to his more natural fit at left guard. That alone could go a long way in stabilizing the Kentucky offensive front.
Issue two: Keeping Devin Leary healthy
The incoming quarterback transfer from North Carolina State might not boast the over-the-top physical tools that have made Will Levis a darling of NFL Draft projectors. But Leary is a far more polished and accomplished college QB than Levis was when he came to UK from Penn State in 2021.
Over his four seasons (2019-2022) with the Wolfpack, Leary threw for 6,807 yards while completing 60.2 percent of his throws with 62 touchdowns vs. 16 interceptions.
“This guy can throw the football as good as anybody in the country,” Coen said.
Where the 6-foot-1, 212-pound Leary has been vulnerable is to injury. In 2020, Leary’s season ended after four games due to a broken fibula. Last year, Leary was sidelined after six games due to a torn pectoral muscle.
Keeping Leary healthy so he can throw to an impressive array of young Kentucky playmakers is vital to the UK season.
Issue three: Replacing C-Rod
Kentucky star running back Christopher Rodriguez departs for the 2023 NFL Draft as UK’s third-leading career rusher (3,643 yards). Whether UK has anyone to take up the baton that previously passed from Benny Snell to “C-Rod” is to be determined.
“Somebody needs to emerge and take that over,” Coen said.
At 5-9 and 215-pounds, incoming transfer Ray Davis would seem the most likely to emerge. Davis ran for 1,042 yards last season for Vanderbilt, including 129 yards on 26 carries in the Commodores’ 24-21 upset of UK at Kroger Field.
Issue four: Finding new cornerbacks
Kentucky ended 2022 seventh in the FBS in pass defense, allowing 170.8 yards per game. Two of the big reasons for that success, starting corners Keidron Smith and Carrington Valentine, are departing.
Finding capable replacements is UK’s biggest defensive concern. Junior-to-be Andru Phillips showed promise for the Cats in multiple defensive backfield roles last season and figures to log a lot of time at corner in 2023.
Kentucky also needs incoming transfers Jantzen Dunn (Ohio State, by way of South Warren High School) and JQ Hardaway (Cincinnati) to hit big at cornerback.
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Issue five: Fixing the special teams
Buoyed by the excellence of punter Tory Taylor — eight kicks, 48.3 yards per kick, six punts stopped inside the UK 20 — Iowa dominated Kentucky in special teams in the Music City Bowl.
That continued a season-long trend. Far too often, UK long-snapping and/or the “operation” on its place-kick unit undermined the Cats.
“We have to turn the table there,” Stoops said of special teams. “… There were certainly games where (special teams) impacted (the outcome) in a negative way. I have to address it.”
To do so, Stoops has brought in veteran Jay Boulware to coach running backs and oversee the special teams.
To have any shot in 2023 at producing the breakthrough season the Big Blue Nation craves, UK special teams need to actually be special.
