Disappointed in Kentucky’s offense? Bush Hamdan was, too
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky passed for only 85 yards and was outgained 329-305 by Toledo.
- The Wildcats rushed for 220 yards, led by transfer Dante Dowdell’s 129-yard game.
- Kentucky’s offensive line allowed no sacks and tight ends led in receiving yards.
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Gameday: Kentucky 24, Toledo 16
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Toledo football game at Kroger Field in Lexington.
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Let’s stipulate: If you are among the Kentucky fans who came out of UK’s offensive slog of a 2024 season discouraged and unhappy, you likely didn’t see anything in the Wildcats’ 2025 season opener to make you feel better.
UK did the most important thing: In what shaped us as a tricky opener against Mid-American Conference favorite Toledo, the Wildcats ground out a 24-16 victory Saturday before an announced crowd of 56,457 at sun-drenched Kroger Field.
Yet in the first game after a season in which Kentucky never scored more than 20 points against a power-conference foe, the Wildcats threw for only 85 yards and were outgained overall by the visiting Rockets, 329 yards to 305.
It was not the offensive turning of the page for which many UK backers have yearned.
“We feel about the same as you guys feel,” Kentucky offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan said afterward. “I’m not going to sit here and say anything differently.”
In his UK debut, transfer quarterback Zach Calzada completed only 10 of 23 passes and threw a first-half interception that snuffed out a prime Wildcats scoring opportunity. He also failed to hand the ball off on a first-half play that began from the UK 3-yard line and ended with Toledo tackling Calzada in the end zone to score two points on a safety.
With last season’s featured wideouts Dane Key and Barion Brown having exited via the transfer portal, UK’s reconstituted wide receiver group combined for only four catches for a combined 12 yards.
In fairness, Calzada had a long pass completion to wide receiver J.J. Hester overturned on replay review in the first quarter and just missed connecting with wideout Hardley Gilmore on what would have been a long touchdown throw in the third.
Still, this was not a dynamic debut for Kentucky’s new-look passing attack.
“We’re not, by any stretch, going to panic,” UK coach Mark Stoops said of the lack of down-the-field passing. “We just gotta get back to work.”
Yet, as impotent as Kentucky’s vertical passing game looked, there were some offensive seeds planted Saturday that, at the least, could grow into something effective for UK.
• The Wildcats could run the ball.
Kentucky finished with 220 yards rushing against Toledo. Nebraska transfer Dante Dowdell ran for 129 yards on 14 tries that included a 79-yard touchdown jaunt with 9:22 left in the game.
“It was big eyes, big hole, big, like, I gotta go,” Dowdell said of the massive opening off right tackle.
New Mexico State transfer Seth McGowan added 78 yards and had a 6-yard TD run for UK.
For those of us who viewed the single biggest factor Kentucky had to display against Toledo as the ability to run the football, the Wildcats outrushed the Rockets — led by ex-Kentucky back Chip Trayanum (41 rushing yards on 14 carries) — 220-59.
• The reconstructed Kentucky offensive line — starting three players plucked from the transfer portal last offseason — played well.
In addition to opening gaps for the Cats running backs, the Kentucky offensive front did not allow one sack of Calzada.
“Good consistency,” Hamdan said of the Kentucky O-line. “Played much cleaner than we have in the past, and that’s something to build on.”
• Kentucky got its tight ends involved in the passing game.
Senior Josh Kattus led the Cats with three receptions for 43 yards, including a catch where he subsequently hurdled over a Toledo defender.
Said a smiling Kattus: “I can’t lie, (hurdling a defensive player) is something I have told myself, ‘If I don’t ever hurdle someone before my college career is over, it is a failed career.’”
Former Covington Catholic star Willie Rodriguez caught two passes for 31 yards. But at the end of a 23-yard reception that had taken the ball to the Toledo 27-yard line, the sophomore tight end lost a fumble.
“I think they can be big-time threats for us,” Hamdan said of the tight ends. “But the turnover with Willie about (27) yards down field hurt us.”
In some regards, Kentucky’s offensive performance against Toledo is a test of perspective.
If you see the glass half full, you will draw encouragement from the Wildcats’ running game, the offensive line performance and the involvement of the tight ends in the passing game.
Should you favor the half-empty approach, the lack of playmaking from the Kentucky wideouts and Calzada’s inconsistency as a passer likely felt like an extension of last year’s season-long offensive struggles.
With No. 21 Mississippi coming to Lexington next week no doubt burning to avenge last season’s 20-17 Kentucky upset of the then-No. 6 Rebels that, likely, knocked Lane Kiffin’s team out of the College Football Playoff, there is not much time to try to get the Wildcats’ vertical passing game on track.
“The number one message,” Hamdan said, “is going to be (we need to make) a huge jump from week one to week two.”
Regardless of one’s perspective, few will argue that.
This story was originally published August 30, 2025 at 7:11 PM.
