Kentucky special teams made big splash in Week 1

Kentucky wants to win games by playing complementary football. You cannot do that without playing well in the third phase. The kicking game has had some inconsistent moments in recent seasons but special teams coordinator Jay Boulware saw his unit play some dominant football in the season-opening win over Southern Miss. That made a difference in the 31-0 win.

The Wildcats had a plus-20 advantage in average starting field position (own 41 to own 21) due to the kicking game. Boulware’s unit had a game plan that was clearly executed in game one.

“We knew that there was probably no chance that they’d kick the ball to Barion (Brown). We were very prepared for some short kicks. You could see we exploited that with the big return on the opening kickoff return. So Willie (Rodriguez) had a nice return there. We had worked that,” Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops told KSR on Monday. “We expected some form of a short kick, squib, pooch, whatever. We didn’t feel like in any way they were going to kick the ball to Barion.”

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Rodriguez’s 20-yard return was a sign of things to come. Wilson Berry‘s only punt was downed inside the 10. Alex Raynor hit his first field goal attempt of the season from 41 yards out. The punt coverage team sniffed out a Southern Miss fake with true freshman Cam Dooley recording a tackle for loss to create a turnover on downs. Aidan Laros recorded three touchbacks in five kickoff attempts with Kentucky’s coverage team keeping Southern Miss pinned inside the 20 on both returns.

The third phase could be in a position to be a team strength for Kentucky in 2024. Boulware has a well-balanced group with a special return man, very accurate placekicker, and flashed some strong coverage in Week 1.

“The special teams were really solid. Really good. We gotta continue to improve, continue to build on that, but they were really solid.”