Kentucky Offense Searching for More Explosive Plays

The Kentucky offense hasn’t been good enough to win SEC football games. The only time they scored 20+ points, the Wildcats knocked off Ole Miss.

As bad as Bush Hamdan‘s unit is at times, they’ve actually moved the ball well in the middle of the field. The efficient group has multiple games with 20+ first downs. They outgained Vanderbilt in the loss. The biggest issue is in the red zone.

“We gotta finish drives. That’s the message. We gotta finish drives,” said Hamdan. “That’s the frustrating part of it. You look at every game we’ve played this year from yardage, first downs, moving the ball, one and on, from a standpoint of finishing, it just hasn’t been there.”

Kentucky has been in the red zone 18 times. They’ve only scored touchdowns on 10 of those trips. One way to get better in the red zone is to score touchdowns before you even reach the 20-yard line. The issue is that opponents are taking away the Wildcats’ best deep threats down the field.

“It’s been pretty consistent what we’ve gotten. Teams are gonna keep things in front of them and make us go 8 to 10 to 12 to 14-play drives. And I think in those situations it’s critical for us to be at our best. We get tired, from a play-calling standpoint, whatever it is, the consistency’s gotta show up,” said Hamdan.

He added, “We know where we’re at, where the explosive plays gotta come from. We gotta make some of those so we’re not in every drive where it feels like we’re going 12-15 plays.”

Explosive Plays from the Wildcat?

Opponents are playing safeties deep and forcing Kentucky to complete passes underneath. The Wildcats need to find chunk plays from the run game. Even though they do not rank in the Top 10 in the SEC in yards per carry or rushing yards per game, on a down-to-down basis they are one of the most efficient rushing operations in college football, ranking fifth in rushing success rate.

The methodical unit stays ahead of the chains but rarely moves them. The package for Gavin Wimsatt may seem herky-jerky at times, but they aren’t going away from it because he is one of the Cats’ most explosive runners.

“We’ve had five runs over 20 yards this year. You look at that, we’ve got to get that number up. That’s less than once a game we’re able to create that kind of play,” said Hamdan.

“You look at Gavin, you look at everybody on our roster from a standpoint of what he did at Rutgers, he’s still a guy that’s showed or displayed the ability to create those runs for us. That’s the big focus. We feel like we’ve been able to move the ball, and get first downs. We had another game of more than 20 first downs, but at some point, we’ve gotta create some big ones, gotta create some explosive plays when they’re playing us soft on the back end and not necessarily letting us get down the field. We think Gavin is one of our better players and that’s why he’s getting that opportunity.”

It doesn’t matter where they find them, Kentucky has to create more big plays in the run game.

“We got to break more tackles, that simple. Run harder, faster, and make it happen,” said Demie Sumo-Karngbaye.