Kentucky offense is dealing with roster turnover, offensive line rebuild during spring practice

Coachspeak often sneaks out at some point during spring practice as monotony begins to set in. That is not what happened at the Joe Craft Football Training Facility on Saturday.

Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops is not a happy camper right now.

“I’m a little pissed off today,” Stoops said. “I don’t have a lot to say today. I’m a little frustrated, a little disappointed, a little pissed to be totally honest with you. It’s been lackluster the past couple of days.”

“We got no leaders right now. I’m not going to single out anybody right now while I’m pissed, because I don’t want everybody to read between the lines like it’s just them. It’s the whole group.”

Those are some strong words for spring practice. After the head coach left the podium, offensive players also confirmed that Kentucky is not reaching the program’s standard right now.

“We just gotta get back to the hard-nosed Kentucky football that this program was built on,” NC State transfer Devin Leary said. “That’s kind of what Coach Stoops was talking about after practice. Me coming in as a new guy, I’ve gotta do a better job of stepping up as well and upholding that standard. I remember watching Kentucky before I even came here and that’s what they were all about — just hard-nosed, tough football. We just gotta get back to that brand.”

“At times when a voice needs to be heard, if I need to step up in that role, that’s a step I need to take. I need to be better.”

Providing vocal leadership right now could be an unfair task for Leary. Due to the uniqueness of modern college football created by the new transfer rules, teams can often rebuild their depth charts in a single offseason. However, that can make an impact on the day-to-day operation. There is an onboarding process for these new additions. On offense, Leary is joined by Ray Davis (RB) and Marques Cox (LT) as veteran players that are expected to play starter snaps at Kroger Field this fall. Kentucky will be looking to all three to provide leadership, but they are still attempting to get acclimated to how the Wildcats operate.

“I think college football’s changed a little bit in the aspect of the way the rules are, the things you’re allowed to do. I think it’s harder to build a team these days,” redshirt senior offensive lineman Eli Cox told reporters on Saturday. “Stoops is doing his best job, all our coaches are doing their best job to bring in quality guys but there’s just a lot of turnover. There’s going to be some disconnect in the beginning. We got a lot of guys that haven’t been a part of this program but for two months. I mean that’s the majority of our roster. Devin’s only been here a couple months. He’s still trying to figure out what Kentucky’s all about. He’s done a great job, but there’s a lot of guys in that position.”

“We just really need to focus on driving home the rest of the spring, all through summer, all through fall camp what this program is built on because there’s a lot of guys that haven’t been here very long that are being asked and tasked with being big parts of this team.”

Kentucky brought Leary in to be QB1 and some vocal leadership expectations come with that position. With that said, the quarterback will have a hard time making a real impact on the physical nature of the game no matter what the scheme. The Wildcats are looking to get back to what led to success in the first place.

What was the Kentucky football program built on in the Mark Stoops era? Tough, physical offensive linemen that could reset the line of scrimmage in the run game. That disappeared in 2022. As offensive line coach Zach Yenser enters year two, Kentucky is trying to recapture the success that John Schlarman cultivated in Lexington.

That is easier said than done. With the “run the football” comments, signs are pointing to inefficient line-of-scrimmage play being at the center of the angst within the program right now. Kentucky is desperately trying to recover its identity that disappeared last fall.

“We’re known for running the football, we’re known for the Big Blue Wall, protecting the quarterback, moving people off the line of scrimmage, and that’s what we’re going to get back to,” Cox said.

Everyone knows the goal. At some point, the new players at Kentucky will get acclimated to how the program operates, but how the team performs in 2023 will be directly tied to how the offensive line plays when fall rolls around.

Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.