Staff continuity could allow Kentucky's offense to have more built-in answers

Mark Stoops never wavered despite the disappointing season in 2024. Kentucky desperately needed some offensive staff continuity. That occurred when the Wildcats decided to bring offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan and offensive line coach Eric Wolford back for another season in 2025.

Now Stoops is hoping that move pays off. The Wildcats will have new starters at quarterback, tackle, guard, center, and wide receiver. Nebraska transfer Dante Dowdell will play a big role at tailback. There will be a lot of new faces from the player personnel side, but the coaching faces have not changed outside of the wide receiver room.

Stoops believes this continuity will pay dividends once the games begin and Kentucky has more built-in answers than last season.

“It definitely helps with the staff continuity because I even think through last year, you go into the season and you realize for him first time calling plays in the SEC, had been in the league obviously knew what he was getting into, but maybe what we can do. What we did well, where we fell short early, and try to adapt to things and be able to function and be able to get ahead of those critical situations that we talked about and be better prepared,” Stoops explained.

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During the season when things were going bad for the Kentucky offense, Stoops mentioned that Hamdan was dealt a bad hand. After the win over Ole Miss, Hamdan discussed that Kentucky was doing everything on offense with thinking about protection first. Some injuries on the offensive line didn’t help matters. The quarterback situation was an issue.

The Wildcats are hopeful better results can occur in 2025 with a rebooted roster after going through some real growing pains last season.

The staff continuity should give Kentucky better answers on game day after Hamdan added some game day experience and played a huge role in building this current roster instead of inheriting a roster. The success of the season could hinge on Hamdan and the rest of the offensive staff finding ways to be improved on offense across the board.

Kentucky is betting on high transfer portal volume and staff continuity to deliver results in 2025.