BBN Treated to Uptempo Exhibition at Kentucky Football Spring Game

The Kentucky Football Spring Game was reclassified as an open practice. The BBN still got a high-quality snapshot of what the Wildcats will look like next fall.

An hour of the 90-minute exhibition at Kroger Field was an 11-on-11 scrimmage. Players were not tackled all the way to the ground. It limited what we could gather about the run game, but the man every fan was there to see shined.

Wearing a gray No. 12 Kentucky jersey for the first time, QB Brock Vandagriff looked the part. Bush Hamdan did not instruct his quarterback to unleash a barrage of deep balls. The Georgia quarterback operated efficiently within the offense.

“We just pitched and catched and made a little routine look routine today.” Mark Stoops added, “I think it was relatively clean.”

The Cats alternated series, divvying up reps to Vandagriff, Beau Allen, and Cutter Boley. The first-string offense was stalled on the first drive, forcing a 44-yard field goal make by Alex Raynor. Vandagriff eventually connected on passing scores to Khamari Anderson and Dane Key. The latter fought through contact to make an impressive catch.

Feel a Difference in Tempo

Tempo has been the talk of the offseason for the Kentucky football team. The Cats aren’t playing Josh Heupel fast, but you can certainly feel the difference. When providing play-by-play updates on KSBoard, it became a struggle to keep up, something that’s never been a problem for this blogger. The Kentucky offense snapped the ball about every 20 seconds.

“The pace was pretty smooth today,” said Brock Vandagriff. “Obviously this our first or third scrimmage of the spring and you got to keep in mind, most of the guys that are in our room have huddled after every play and stuff. They’ve never really looked at signals. They’ve listened to the full call on the huddle, clapped, jogged up to the line. It went a lot smoother than I really thought today.”

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Five Most Impressive Plays of the Kentucky Spring Game

1. The most explosive play of the day by the ones was a double-move by Dane Key. Vandagriff gave the defense a hard shoulder pump-fake and Key’s defender bit. The pass was underthrown, but put in a spot for the receiver to haul in the ball for a 40-yard gain.

2. Hardley Gilmore received a ton of praise through the spring. On his first snap he lived up to the hype. On a deep comeback route, Gilmore shook his defender and Beau Allen put the ball right where it needed to be on the sideline. Gilmore got two feet down for about a 20-yard gain.

3. It wasn’t all offense. Max Hairston only played one series, but he made it count. In man-to-man coverage on the fringe of the red zone, the talented cornerback knew the Cats were going to take a shot to Barion Brown. The explosive wide receiver ran a post-corner, but Hairston was too physical for No. 7 to get open.

“He almost got me on that post,” Hairston admitted. “I almost bit on that but you know luckily I played with my eyes, stayed on top, kept my leverage. I wanted a PBU but the ball couldn’t be caught and that’s the goal.”

4. Brock Vandagriff showed us he can use his legs to be a ball carrier. He also used them to scramble. It paid off in one of his only mistakes of the day. The quarterback admitted after the scrimmage that he did not correctly hear the call in his headset. When Barion Brown went a different direction, Vandagriff had to improvise. He bought time and gave a hand motion to Anthony Brown-Stephens, who planted his foot to shake his defender and make a 25-yard gain look easy.

5. Jaremiah Anglin has only been cleared to play for a few weeks. Despite his inexperience, he played physically at cornerback. He provided the pop Stoops needed to see to end the scrimmage, jumping a route for a Pick Six.