Kentucky's offensive line has nowhere to go but up

The Big Blue Wall, a nickname earned from multiple years of extraordinary play from Kentucky’s offensive line, looked more like a medium-sized yield sign last season. The eye test made this evident from watching a hobbled Will Levis sustain sack after sack, however, advanced analytics show just how much the Wildcat’s front crumbled.

According to PFF, a premium statistics website that I will likely reference way too much this season, Kentucky’s starting offensive line averaged next to last in the SEC when it comes to performance. That’s right, the only team with a worse offensive line rating was Vanderbilt.

PFF ranks players on a normalized scale between 0 to 100 where 60 is average, 90 is exceptional and 30 is about as bad as you can get. Between all five starters last season, Eli Cox, Jager Burton, Tashawn Manning, Kenneth Horsey, and Jeremy Flax, Kentucky averaged a rating of 58.34.

For comparison, Arkansas led the SEC with an average rating of 76.66.

PFF further breaks offensive linemen’s performance down into pass-blocking and run-blocking categories, and as you might guess, those numbers don’t get much better. Kentucky averaged 10th in the SEC in pass blocking last year with an average of 64.14, boosted largely by Tashawn Manning, now with the Baltimore Ravens, who had a rating of 77.2 rating.

As for run blocking, Kentucky’s starters averaged a rating of 56.32, coming in 12th in the SEC just ahead of Vanderbilt and South Carolina. That really makes you admire what Chris Rodiguez did that much more.

Kentucky’s 2022 Offensive Line PFF Ratings

Player	Position	Overall PFF	Run Block	Pass Block
Eli Cox	C	58.6	53.9	64.8
Jager Burton	G	48.2	47.1	46.8
Tashawn Manning	G	68	66	77.2
Kenneth Horsey	T	66.8	63.4	68.5
Jeremy Flax	T	50.1	51.2	63.4

Team	Overall	Run Block	Pass Block
Arkansas	76.66	75.44	76.54
Florida	73.88	73.4	75.6
Alabama	73.78	70.52	79.36
Georgia	72.58	69.26	77.34
LSU	64.78	65.38	64.24
Miss St	64.6	59.7	73.34
Texas A&M	62.14	65.84	55.72
Missouri	61.48	60.92	62.54
Tennessee	59.98	58.32	60.28
Ole Miss	59.92	57.84	64.74
South Carolina	59.38	55.44	68.88
Auburn	58.82	57.78	64.9
Kentucky	58.34	56.32	64.14
Vanderbilt	53.04	52.4	57.02

Kentucky had an elite stretch of offensive line play prior to last season

Kentucky fans threw around the Big Blue Wall moniker to the point where it was taken for granted, but as your grandma likely taught you, you don’t fully appreciate something until it is gone.

For three years in a row between 2019 and 2021, Kentucky’s starting offensive linemen averaged the best PFF grades in all of the SEC.

The best. For. Three. Years. In. A. Row.

Cliches and old TV game shows claim you are only as strong as your weakest link, and that is certainly true of an offensive line. One bad performer can bring the entire line down, but there were no loose links, err, bricks in the Big Blue Wall between 2019 and 2021.

In 2019, Kentucky averaged a 78.86 rating. They followed that up in 2020 with an astonishing 79.72 rating and kept the momentum going with a 78.94 average in 2021. It is easy to forget Kentucky had multiple NFL players on the line during that stretch including Luke Fortner, Darrian Kinnard, Logan Stenberg, and Landon Young (not to mention Drake Jackson), and those guys were good.

Those were some mighty big shoes to fill for anyone, but last year’s team struggled to even tie the laces.

PFF Grades for Kentucky’s most formidable Big Blue Wall years

Kentucky 2021
Player	Pos	Overall	Run Block	Pass Block
Luke Fortner	C	85.8	85.2	83.3
Darian Kinnard	G	92.2	92.4	87.4
Dare Rosenthal	G	78.9	79	69.3
Kenneth Horsey	T	74.4	71.9	80.5
Eli Cox	T	63.4	65.8	58.7
Average		78.94	78.86	75.84

Kentucky 2020
Player	Pos	Overall	Run Block	Pass Block
Drake Jackson	C	89.5	86.9	83.6
Landon Young	T	75.9	74.8	74.5
Darian Kinnard	T	92	92.3	74
Luke Fortner	G	72.8	72.6	64.1
Austin Dotson	G	68.4	77.1	46.1
Average		79.72	80.74	68.46

Kentucky 2019
Player	Pos	Overall	Run Block	Pass Block
Drake Jackson	C	76.8	77.6	75
Landon Young	T	77.8	72	88.4
Logan Stenberg	T	75.6	79.2	83
Darian Kinnard	G	88	88.2	68.1
Luke Fortner	G	76.1	73.5	75.4
Average		78.86	78.1	77.98

Nowhere to go but up

I suppose Kentucky could technically drop from 13th best in the SEC to dead last, but barring a sub-Vandy plunge, this year’s offensive line can only improve from last season.

Not to cast too much blame on one person because Kentucky obviously lost a lot of talent, but evidently, Rich Scangarello’s offensive lingo last year was a combination of Latin and advanced Calculus. With Liam Coen back at the helm, the team looks to get back to basics and improve upfront.

Marques Cox and Courtland Ford, two transfers Stoops picked up in the transfer portal should also help. Cox, the presumed starting left tackle, played for Northern Illinois last season and while his overall PFF grade of 63.2 was brought down by a below-average run-blocking score, Cox posted an incredible 90.5 pass-block rating.

Devin Leary should not have to worry too much about his blind side when dropping back for a pass.

As for USC transfer Ford, he posted a 65.3 PFF rating last year in limited playing time with the Trojans. His specialty appears to be the reverse of Cox, posting a much higher run-block grade (70.4) than this pass-block one (54.8).

With Jager Burton moving over to center, a position he loves, and Eli Cox and Kenneth Horsey moving back to their natural position at guard, Coach Yenser’s group is looking much more like the formidable Big Blue Wall of the past.

“The main goal is to keep Devin clean. Whatever it takes to be able to keep him clean,” Courtland Ford told KSR at Kentucky media day. “If it’s like going out building brotherhood, chemistry within the o-line group we’re going to do that.”