On3 Roundtable: Success of Devin Leary, overhauled Kentucky offense hinge on Big Blue Wall

Devin Leary‘s arrival in Lexington has fans optimistic for a successful 2023 campaign for their Kentucky Wildcats.

Before UK can enjoy the luxury of acquiring one of the top players in the transfer portal in Leary, they’ll have to address one major weakness from last season — the offensive line. The once proud ‘Big Blue Wall’ that the Wildcats hung their hats on for so long dissapeared in 2022. It’s imperative for them to get back to that same success this season as Leary looks to give Kentucky his all during his final season of college football.

“As a Kentucky fan, I’m very excited about what Leary can bring but I think for starters, it’s about just keeping him alive,” KSR’s Drew Franklin told the On3 Roundtable The offensive line was a really big reason behind the dip with Will Levis in Year 2, and also they’re bringing Liam Coen back when a Rich Scangarello experiment didn’t go well at coordinator last year.

“So, I think the offense as a whole has a complete overhaul with Leary getting the reins. They’re very excited about what he showed two years ago at NC State. He’s bouncing back from a torn pec, but he looks ready in the spring in the limited time we got to see him. So, I think he will be a good quarterback back there with a lot of playmakers around him, as long as they can keep them alive.”

Kentucky returns G’s Kenneth Horsey and Jager Burton, T Jeremy Flax and C/G Eli Cox from last season’s starting lineup, but have acquired the services of T Marques Cox and G Ben Christman from the transfer portal to beef up their lineup.

Marques Cox allowed just three sacks in over 1,000 snaps for Northern Illinois before committing to Kentucky this offseason, while Christman is a former top 150 recruit per the 2021 On3 Industry Rankings, a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services.

Will Levis’ stats were down across the board between his junior and senior campaigns, but the difference in Levis’s stats comes from the talent around him, particularly on his offensive line. Levis was sacked 36 times in 2022, which ranked Kentucky’s OL No. 128 out of 131 in the FBS. He was sacked 11.80 percent of the times he dropped back in the pocket last season and UK finished the year 7-6.

If Kentucky can’t answer its offensive line problem before September, Devin Leary will have a long season in Lexington.