Random notes: Kentucky quarterback debuts, betting trends and weather forecasts
Some random notes for the Friday before the Kentucky football opener:
▪ UK quarterback Brock Vandagriff will be making his first college start when the Wildcats take on Southern Miss at 7:45 p.m. on Saturday at Kroger Field.
The Athens native, who spent his first three seasons as a backup quarterback with the Georgia Bulldogs, is the sixth UK QB to make his first college start in the season opener during the Mark Stoops era.
Here’s how I would rank the previous five debuts:
1. Will Levis, 2021: The Penn State transfer threw for 367 yards and four touchdowns in the Cats’ 45-10 victory over UL Monroe in the first game of the season. Playing for new offensive coordinator Liam Coen, Levis completed 18 of 26 passes. He was intercepted once. He threw a 33-yard TD pass to Wan’Dale Robinson, a 58-yard-TD pass to Josh Ali, a 15-yard TD pass to Robinson and a 4-yard TD pass to Brenden Bates. UK went on to a 10-3 record and a win over Iowa in the Citrus Bowl.
2. Patrick Towles, 2014: The former Fort Thomas Highlands star completed 20 of 29 passes for 377 yards and one touchdown in the Cats’ 59-14 thrashing of UT Martin to start Stoops’ second season as UK coach. Towles’ scoring pass was a 29-yard hookup with Blake Bone. Towles also ran for a 23-yard touchdown. After back-to-back 5-7 finishes in 2014 and 2015, Towles transferred to Boston College.
3. Drew Barker, 2016: The heralded recruit from Conner High School in Hebron was fantastic in the first half of UK’s opener against visiting Southern Miss. Alas, the visiting Golden Eagles rallied for a 44-35 win in Lexington. Barker ended up 15-of-24 for 323 yards through the air with four touchdowns and one interception. The back injury he suffered and then aggravated over the next two weeks basically ended his college career. Stephen Johnson took over at quarterback and led UK to the Gator Bowl, the program’s first bowl bid under Stoops.
4. Devin Leary, 2023: The transfer from North Carolina State completed 18 of 31 passes for 241 yards and a touchdown, with one interception, in the Wildcats’ 44-14 opening-game win over Ball State. Leary’s scoring pass went to Dane Key from 5 yards out. With Leary at the helm, Kentucky finished 7-6 after losing 38-35 to Clemson in the Gator Bowl.
5. Terry Wilson, 2018: A junior college transfer who began his college career at Oregon, Wilson struggled in his first college start at Kentucky. He was 11-of-18 passing for a mere 78 yards and threw two interceptions. After Wilson suffered a shoulder injury, backup Gunnar Hoak came on to help Kentucky to a 35-20 win over Central Michigan. Wilson went on to lead UK to a 10-3 record, including a Citrus Bowl win over Penn State.
▪ Vandagriff and teammate Maxwell Hairston star in an ad for Hilton Hotel in Lexington.
Kentucky betting trends for opener
Kentucky is a 28-point favorite over Southern Miss. Here were the odds for Stoops’ previous 11 openers.
- 2013 - UK was a four-point favorite over Western Kentucky, but lost 35-26 in Nashville.
- 2014 - UK was a 21-point favorite over UT Martin and won 59-14.
- 2015 - UK was a 17-point favorite over Louisiana and won 40-33.
- 2016 - UK was a six-point favorite over Southern Miss, but lost 44-35 at home.
- 2017 - UK was a nine-point favorite at Southern Miss and won 24-17.
- 2018 - UK was a 17-point favorite over Central Michigan and won 38-24.
- 2019 - UK was an 11-point favorite over Toledo and won 38-24.
- 2020 - UK was a seven-point underdog at Auburn and lost 29-13.
- 2021 - UK was a 31-point favorite over ULM and won 45-10.
- 2022 - UK was a 15-point favorite over Miami (Ohio) and won 37-13.
- 2023 - UK was a 25-point favorite over Ball State and won 44-14.
If you are keeping score at home, Kentucky is 5-6 against the spread in Stoops era season openers. They are 3-0 in the last three, however.
The weather for the opener
The forecast is calling for a high temperature of 88 degrees on Saturday with a temperature of 77 degrees at kickoff.
Here were the temperatures for Stoops’ previous 11 openers at Kentucky
- 2023 - Ball State, 82 degrees
- 2022 - Miami (Ohio), 76 degrees
- 2021 - ULM, 78 degrees
- 2020 - At Auburn, 75 degrees (Sept. 28)
- 2019 - Toledo, 85 degrees
- 2018 - Central Michigan, 82 degrees
- 2017 - At Southern Miss, 86 degrees
- 2016 - Southern Miss, 76 degrees
- 2015 - Louisiana, 88 degrees
- 2014 - UT Martin, 86 degrees
- 2013 - Western Kentucky in Nashville, 89 degrees
▪ After Thursday’s practice, Stoops said he thought the extreme heat during the week had been a good challenge for his team.
Bush Hamdan’s debut as UK play-caller
At his press availability on Tuesday, new UK offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan talked about how a focus of training camp has been reducing or eliminating pre-snap penalties.
▪ By my records, Kentucky’s offense committed 14 false start penalties last season. Two of those came on third-and-1 situations. One came on a third-and-3. Another on a third-and-4. The Cats committed four false starts on first-and-10.
The 14 in 2023 was actually an improvement from 2022, when the Cats committed 25 false start penalties. UK was called for false starts 14 times in 2021.
▪ Another focus for the offense has been on creating explosive plays. Kentucky was tied for 12th nationally last season in FBS plays of 50+ yards with 11. The Cats were tied for 81st in plays of 10+ yards with 163.
What hurt Kentucky’s offense was 63 rushing plays of zero yards or less. That’s excluding sacks and kneel-downs. Nearly half of those (30) came on first-and-10 situations.
▪ Hamdan will be up in the coach’s box on Saturday night. In his introductory press conference, Hamdan said he liked to drink his coffee during the game. With a 7:45 p.m. kickoff Saturday on the SEC Network, I asked him if he would have plenty of coffee ready.
“I do, I might go tea for this one,” he said. “I don’t know, man. I’ll be mixing it all day. Again, just try to stay as calm and focused as we can be.
▪ Previous UK offensive coordinators Neal Brown, Shannon Dawson, Eddie Gran, Liam Coen and Rich Scangarello coached from the sidelines, with one exception. After suffering a medical episode a day after the second game last season, Coen coached from up in the box until the Gator Bowl game against Clemson.
▪ How did Hamdan do in his 2023 season opener as the OC at Boise State? Well, the Broncos were waxed 56-19 at Washington. That’s the same Washington that finished as runner-up to Michigan in the College Football Playoff. Boise did move the ball on the Huskies, passing for 264 yards and rushing for 138 for a total of 402. Washington did intercept two passes by Boise quarterback Taylen Green.
Southern Mississippi’s new coordinators
Southern Miss has new coordinators on both sides of the ball. New defensive play-caller Clay Bignell joined Will Hall’s staff from Eastern Illinois. For three years, Bignell was on the same Notre Dame staff with new Southern Miss offensive coordinator Chip Long. Bignell’s defense led the FCS in turnover margin last season at a plus 1.36 per game.
The 41-year-old Long started out as a graduate assistant under Bobby Petrino at Louisville and then Arkansas. He made stops at Illinois and Arizona State before becoming OC at Memphis in 2016 when ASU assistant Mike Norvell became the Tigers’ head coach.
Long was offensive coordinator at Notre Dame under Brian Kelly from 2017-19. He was an analyst at Tennessee in 2020, offensive coordinator at Tulane in 2021 and Georgia Tech in 2022. He was a quality control coach under Jeff Brohm at Louisville last season.
“Coach Long, their new OC, is a seasoned play-caller,” said UK defensive coordinator Brad White. “We’ve seen him in crossover stuff. He’s been an analyst at Tennessee back in ‘20 when we played down there and last year at Louisville. There’s familiarity sort of from both sides.”
▪ White is also familiar with Southern Miss’s new quarterback, Florida State transfer Tate Rodemaker.
“Good player,” White said this week. “He came in when Jordan Travis went down and played really well. He can stand up there. He can deliver. He can spin it. Tall. He can see over the O-line. He’s an adequate mover.”
Will Hall coached under Mike Norvell at Florida State before coming to Southern Miss. While a Seminole, Rodemaker was 12-of-25 passing for 134 yards in FSU’s 24-15 win over the Gators before suffering a concussion.
SEC links
▪ ESPN has unveiled its new SEC on ABC theme song.
▪ Senator Lindsey Graham likes Clemson’s chances against Georgia.
▪ Why Dabo Swinney can — and cannot — upset Kirby Smart.
▪ Five Florida players to watch for the Gators’ opener against Miami.
▪ If the SEC wants to hold its reputation, Texas can’t be a first-year champ.
▪ New LSU defensive coordinator Blake Baker has a No. 1 goal.
▪ South Carolina’s “2001” entrance has a new look.
▪ Alabama AD corrected Football Scoop about the Tide’s NIL collectives.
▪ Former Alabama quarterback Eli Holstein has been named the starter at Pittsburgh.
▪ Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold can’t avoid comparisons to Dillon Gabriel.
SEC football schedule this weekend
Thursday
- Arkansas 70, Arkansas Pine-Bluff 0
- Missouri 51, Murray State 0
Friday
- 7 p.m. - Temple at Oklahoma (ESPN)
Saturday
- Noon - Clemson at Georgia (ABC)
- Noon - Virginia Tech at Vanderbilt (ESPN)
- 12:45 p.m. - Chattanooga at Tennessee (SEC)
- 3:30 p.m. - Colorado State at Texas (ESPN)
- 3:30 p.m. - Miami at Florida (ABC)
- 4:15 p.m. - Old Dominion at South Carolina (SEC)
- 6 p.m. - Eastern Kentucky at Mississippi State (ESPN+)
- 7 p.m. - Western Kentucky at Alabama (ESPN)
- 7 p.m. - Furman at Ole Miss (ESPN+)
- 7:30 p.m. - Notre Dame at Texas A&M (ABC)
- 7:30 p.m. - Alabama A&M at Auburn (ESPN+)
- 7:45 p.m. - Southern Miss at Kentucky (SEC)
Sunday
- 7:30 p.m. - USC at LSU (ABC)
This story was originally published August 30, 2024 at 9:26 AM with the headline "Random notes: Kentucky quarterback debuts, betting trends and weather forecasts."
