Devin Leary uses tempo to find rhythm, explode in second half

It was a tale of two halves for Devin Leary. He completed 14 of 25 balls for 125 yards and one touchdown with one interception in the first, dealing with an unfortunate combination of misfires and drops. The fifth-year senior then followed it up with 174 yards on 10-13 passing in the second half with three touchdowns. He finished with eight consecutive completions to end the game with 13.4 yards per attempt overall and a 77% success rate after the break.

Leary knew something was off, relaying the message to Mark Stoops toward the end of Kentucky’s 28-17 win over Eastern Kentucky.

“I think he felt a little disappointed in himself,” Stoops said of the fifth-year quarterback. “He made a comment to me late in the game, you know, just the first half he was a bit off. I think he will get better and better. And that makes it tough, you know when you miss some throws, some explosives that are out there and you miss them. It doesn’t help the situation. But you calm down, and he made much better throws in the second half.”

To his credit, Leary was tremendous down the stretch. He hit Tayvion Robinson on a six-yard slant for a touchdown, followed by a 13-yard dart to a wide-open Barion Brown in the end zone to put the Wildcats up 21-10. Then Leary found Ray Davis down the left sideline for a 24-yard score to wrap up the 28-17 win.

You can include his 24-yard beauty to Robinson with 42 seconds to go in the first half, as well, the offense’s lone score before the break.

Tempo helps Leary find his groove

The Wildcats started their first six possessions with zero points and 2.94 yards per play, followed by 28 points and 12.3 yards per play in the next four drives. Leary’s comfort played a significant role in that.

“We kind of got into a rhythm, coach (Liam) Coen wanted to hit them with a little bit of tempo,” Leary said after the win. “In the past, a lot of the offense I’ve run is no-huddle tempo, so it’s a little bit of what I’m comfortable with. But at the end of the day, whatever he calls, however he wants the offense to operate, it’s my job to run it smoothly. It was good to see us get a little bit of rhythm and temp in the second half and put some points on the board.”

Kentucky ran 51 plays against Ball State in week one, then 61 against EKU good for 112 total. That ranks dead last in the SEC and Power Five, fourth-worst in all of college football through two games.

What does Stoops think of the team’s current pace and offensive flow in general?

“I think we are still taking some time and the overall procedure will continue to
improve. You know, there were opportunities left out there as well,” he said. “And when we missed some throws and killed some drives, you are leaving some things out there that we will improve on.”

Liam Coen finds balance as a playcaller

As for the specific play calls, Liam Coen says he’s trying to find a balance of going with what his players are comfortable running while also improving outside of their comfort zone ahead of SEC play. That’s led to some discombobulation early, especially with Eastern Kentucky executing and battling.

“Just looking at the guys, I was calling things that they really know how to execute well, and part of it is on me. Being able to call stuff I know we have a lot of confidence in. But we’re also trying to get better, so it’s a bit of a catch-22,” he said. “We came into the half and I didn’t see anyone with their head down, didn’t lose belief. They just came out and executed at a high level, played hard and good things happened.”

Stoops also blames the slow start on “critical penalties” that killed some early drives. And when they got some chances, yes, Leary missed on a few throws.

All fixable mistakes.

“I am not worried about Devin. He is one heck of a player, and he will get it ironed out. And he missed some things,” Stoops added. “I thought there were balls we could have caught as well. And there are things we can all do better. You know, there’s — be more physical at the point of attack, get it at second and five rather than second and nine or 10. We will all share in it, but later I thought we had some critical drives that were successful.”

Leary knows what needs to improve

Leary did some really good things, but also had several other plays he’d like to have back, especially early. He knows the offense is better as a unit than they’ve shown through two weeks. Everyone inside that locker room knows it.

“We’ve got to start better, definitely have to start better. Kind of similar to last week, you walk away taking the win but we’re much better than that,” he said. “We just have to start better in the first half. The defense balled out, credit to those guys. Then in the second half, we started to pick it up a little more, but a lot of guys in the locker room are dapping each other up understanding we’ve got to start better. That was a big takeaway from today.”

Stoops had a message of “quit looking at the scoreboard and play the game, play one play at a time” going into the half, he said. And Leary took that message to heart.

The offense wants to put points on the board as much as anyone. And there’s a belief things will start clicking the way we saw in the second half moving forward.

“Just making sure we’re going play-by-play. That’s the biggest thing for our offense, not trying to score 40 points in one play. It’s not possible, as much as we want it to happen,” Leary said. “You can only go one play at a time, win one play at a time. For me, a couple of those missed throws early on, my mechanics were a little off. Going to the sideline, it was really cool to talk to (the backups) because they were giving me some pointers on cleaning up my footwork and making sure I’m not rushing anything in the second half. That’s when I settled in and took what the defense gave me.”

2-0 is 2-0. Let’s just hope 3-0 is a bit prettier vs. Akron next week.