Anxious, Excited, Jitters: What was Wrong with the Kentucky Offense vs. Ball State

Something didn’t look right when the Kentucky offense took the field. It’s difficult to describe exactly what was wrong, but it was clear something was off when Liam Coen put the UK headset on for the first time since 2021.

A dropped pass stalled the Cats’ first drive. The second drive ended after only moving the chains once. Kentucky followed it up with an 11-play march that ended with a touchdown, but execution in the red zone was far from perfect. The next drive ended on fourth down. A series later the Cats got a short field but settled for a field goal.

“I think everybody was a bit anxious. It’s hard to put my finger on any one area,” Mark Stoops said after the game.

Dane Key agrees. The high-flying wide receiver made his fair share of big plays (5 receptions, 96 yards, 1 touchdown), but the offense did not operate as smoothly on Saturday as it did during preseason practices.

“It was just game one jitters. I feel like everyone had ’em,” said the sophomore wide receiver. “We’re going to come out ready to improve next week.”

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Kentucky Debut for Devin Leary is Up and Down

The debut of Devin Leary did not feature the fireworks many expected. He connected with Key for a 44-yard gain on the opening play of the game. By halftime he had completed just 8-of-20 passes.

“I think it’s the first game, guys are excited. It’s the first time going against a different defense in so long. Going through camp, there’s a lot of new faces out there on the field. I think at the end of the day everyone was just very excited. We needed to refresh a little bit, take a deep breath before every play and just make sure we were doing our job, I think that’s all,” said the Kentucky quarterback.

“At times guys wanted to do a lot more than what was asked to do, starting with myself. I need to make sure that everyone is confident in the play, confident in the huddle, break the huddle and make sure everyone is on the right page.”

The Cats seemed to get on the same page in the second half. The UK offense only ran 18 plays, but 10 of those 11 were completions. Leary finished with 241 yards, a touchdown and an interception to surpass 7,000 career passing yards.

Even though the Kentucky offense was far from perfect, one thing did look awfully nice: Leary wasn’t on his back. The offensive line that gave up more sacks than any other team in the Power Five last fall kept Leary clean until the fourth quarter. Despite some communication problems and snapping issues, he was just sacked only once.

“I felt fine. Honestly. I barely got touched today. Credit to those guys…” said QB1. “I’m really proud of those guys.”

Kentucky Quarterback Devin Leary was only sacked once in his Big Blue debut against Ball State. #TheBigBlueWall was not perfect, but QB1 is proud of his offensive line.

“I felt fine. Honestly, I barely got touched today. Credit to those guys… I’m really proud of them.”… pic.twitter.com/92vayie47a

— KSR (@KSRonX) September 2, 2023