Kentucky's lack of names at skill positions highlighted by opposing coach

Kentucky has recently found success in adding more talent than what they used to be accustomed to. With that said, one opponent doesn’t think that that fact necessarily applies to their skill players on offense.

In Lindy Sport’s 2024 Preview, an opposing coach shared some thoughts on the Wildcats’ offensive weapons. In his opinion, UK, for as much as they’ve improved in recruiting, hasn’t had “household names” or “marquee players” at those positions.

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“The best offense he had was when he had Eddie Gran as offensive coordinator. Mark brought him back as a consultant to help him. Eddie Gran always fabricated a way to move the football,” they said. “They don’t have household names at skill positions. They haven’t had marquee players on offense for whatever reason.”

One position that that take doesn’t necessarily apply to is at running back. From Boom Williams and Benny Snell to Chris Rodriguez and Ray Davis among others, Kentucky has relied on a top-notch running game for some time.

This opinion would include spots like at wide receiver, though. Names like Lynn Bowden, Josh Ali, Tayvion Robinson, and, most notably, Wandale Robinson have all come and gone through recent seasons. They’ll now have two more in their junior seasons, Barion Brown and Dane Key, along with another out of the portal, Ja’Mori Maclin (North Texas), looking to change that thinking.

However, with that said, another coach thinks few others can overcome something like that as well as Mark Stoops. Regardless of what he has had on the roster, he made it work and became the school’s all-time winningest coach.

“Mark Stoops does as good a job with what he has as anybody in the SEC. Mark is a football coach. He finds a way to make it work. He’s always recruited well and developed better than most people in the SEC. I think he does as good a job as anybody in the country with what he’s got,” this coach said. “Kentucky Football is a hard job. People don’t wake up in the morning dreaming of going to Kentucky for football. They do for basketball.”

Kentucky has had on and off troubles on offense over the last few seasons amidst changes, including now five offensive coordinators in five straight seasons. Now, with Stoops and OC Bush Hamdan, they’ll look to again overcome that in order to potentially post another quality record in Lexington.