Ja'Mori Maclin says Kentucky offense defeated defense in Saturday scrimmage

Kentucky enters the 2024 college football season with what is projected to be one of the best defenses in the SEC, a group anchored by all-conference candidates Deone Walker and Maxwell Hairston.

So what does it say about the team that the offense actually pulled off the victory in the Wildcats’ debut scrimmage of the fall on Saturday? Take wide receiver Ja’Mori Maclin‘s word for it — or his response to any speculation the result was a toss-up, rather. He certainly doesn’t believe things favored the defense, even if they have on occasion to open camp.

“Eh, I guess (you could say it was a toss-up),” Maclin said Monday. “If that’s what they say, that’s what they say. I’m always going to say the offense wins. They can say that though, it’s all good. It’s always a friendly competition, we all love each other at the end of the day.

“There are days they win and others the offense wins. It’s all fun and games.”

That’s not to say it was a perfect day for the offense, Maclin adding there are a few things here and there that can be tweaked before the Cats kick off the season later this month. When things were humming on that side of the ball, though, they were really humming.

“It was just the first scrimmage so we were seeing what we could do being live and breaking tackles, stuff like that,” he said. “We made a lot of plays, but a lot of mistakes, as well. We’ve just got to clean it up moving forward.”

A big part of that is his growing chemistry with quarterback Brock Vandagriff, making up for lost time after missing the spring due to injury. As they get a better feel for one another on the practice field, the greater production he anticipates in live game action.

“It’s coming along great,” Maclin said of his relationship with Vandagriff. “I missed the spring, now I’m just getting back a lot of reps, thinking about what he’s thinking on a bunch of routes and his timing. We’ve been connecting pretty well lately.”

As things progress between Vandagriff and Maclin, attention is taken away from guys like Barion Brown and Dane Key — a nightmare scenario for opposing defenses figuring out who to slow down. It’s a strong wide receiver room with elite top-end talent, the North Texas transfer being a key piece of the puzzle.

“Dogs, man. We’ve got a bunch of dogs in that room,” he said. “We just have a lot of different players — a speed guy in Barion (Brown), a taller guy in Dane (Key) and a more versatile shorter guy in me. We’ve got a bunch of other guys who can step up, as well — AB (Anthony Brown-Stephens), Hardley (Gilmore), Fred (Farrier). We just push each other every day to be better and that’s exciting.”

Things are trending in the right direction for the Kentucky offense.