Mark Stoops breaks down challenges of Georgia TEs

Kentucky football struggled mightily stopping the Vanderbilt RPO attack last Saturday in the eventual loss to the Commodores. With Georgia coming to town this weekend, the ‘Cats got to find corrections and find them fast in order to prevent the Dawgs from gashing them over and over again with their own elite RPO and play-action designs.

Head coach Mark Stoops understands the challenge the UGA offense presents, and knows his team simply has to perform much better this weekend in those situations if they’re to have any shot at keeping it close.

Here he was this week, explaining what went wrong on those option and play-action plays against Vanderbilt, a few of which the ‘Dores busted for long gains.

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“You know, the quarterback put us in a bad position. When we had good coverage, he’d pull it down and run a couple times, and try to mix it up. We were a bit off balance. You know, we still played solid defensively, not a great effort. We gave up an explosive run to the quarterback and an explosive run to the running back. You know, they crack block, one guy misses and that’s it, you know what I mean.”

He went on to add that the Georgia offense is just “different” in that phase of the game. As in: they have even better players, coaches and schemes. Especially with how threatening their cast of tight ends is. Kirby Smart won’t hesitate to run those RPO and play-action sets with tight ends in the backfield or as the target of the passes. And those tight ends are massive physical game-breakers.

Stoops didn’t hold back when explaining just how good the Dawgs are in those areas.

“With Georgia, you’re going to have the quarterback game, but you’re going to have the weapons and a good scheme, you know. Where they continue to be able to push on you. They’re one of those teams, that they’re big and strong and will come at you with their backs, who are strong and talented. And an offensive line that will push on you and push on you. And you watch them and you may see teams lingering around, then all of a sudden, their depth and their strength take over.”

Going to be another long, cold Saturday in Lexington if Kentucky’s defense plays even close to the level it did against Vanderbilt. If so, expect Darnell Washington and Brock Bowers to absolutely feast.