Mark Stoops shares key to Kentucky finding offensive balance

Kentucky’s 2023 football team is absolutely baffling on the offensive side of the football, and Mark Stoops is trying to find the right balance after the bye week.

You look at some metrics and they’ll tell you the Wildcats have the most efficient running back in the country and are a very capable explosive passing team. But at the same time, little things like drops, missed communications, penalties, etc. have sunk Kentucky in their last two games, the first two losses of the season.

Primarily, the issues are through the air, where UK is able to hit some big plays but simply isn’t consistent in the slightest in almost any phase. Rather than abandon the pass and stick mostly to a very solid run game, Mark Stoops said no, the ‘Cats aren’t going to take the easy route.

“You’ve heard me talk about it. We’ve discussed this, we could sit there and second guess ourselves and look at the last time we took the field and say, ‘Hey you know. We could sit there and run the ball maybe 20 more times and have a better chance to win the game,'” Stoops explained at his press conference. “But are we really growing as an organization, are we really winning and becoming the team that we want to become?”

A mature quote from the Kentucky head coach, who is looking at the bigger picture. UK hasn’t had a reliable passing game in most years under Stoops, but he knows that a dependable and potent passing attack is the key to winning big in college football in the 2020s. So instead of pivoting to another season of pounding the rock 40+ times per game, Kentucky is going to get in the lab and figure out how to make the pass game work.

“We’re never going to stop working at that. And I think last week was just another week where we just worked really hard on ourselves and looked to improve and be more efficient in all phases,” he added.

Stoops was then asked what a good balance for his program looks like, since they will obviously still be a team that runs the ball plenty as they try to find a solution through the air. The Kentucky coach says they just have to keep at it.

“We have to just keep on working on it. We’re not going to give up on that. We have to coach it out of them and just become more efficient. You know, players always either need to be challenged, corrected, or encouraged. That’s not going to change.

“We’re going to challenge people every day, we’re going to get them corrected, coach them, and encourage them to improve That’s what we have to do and that’s a big focus that you look at in the off week.”