LaRosa's Leftovers: D-line shines at practice, Kentucky uses big sets

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On Tuesday, Mark Stoops and Kentucky football opened up the gates for the media to view practice. For the second time this fall camp, KSR was able to watch a full practice. Our own Nick Roush has the practice report up for your consumption. However, there were much more takeaways to pull out as the Wildcats prepare for the second preseason scrimmage this upcoming Saturday.

Thankfully, LaRosa’s Leftovers is here to catch us up after we filled a legal pad full of notes watching two hours of football. Here’s where we stand as camp begins to wind down.

Kentucky defensive line is ahead of schedule

As soon as KSR arrived at the open practice, the first thing that stood out was that LSU transfer Dare Rosenthal was getting snaps with the ones at left tackle. After seeing that, the goal was to get eyes on the offensive line early in practice to see what that looked like. While examing the Big Blue Wall, it was the defensive line that stood out.

At nose tackle, both Marquan McCall and Josiah Hayes had success resetting the line of scrimmage. Octavious Oxendine showed some twitchiness at boundary tackle and looks like a player who could be ready to take over a starting position as a redshirt freshman. Josh Paschal was his steady self at field end.

Second-year assistant coach Anwar Stewart has a position group with a blue-chip ratio of just under 50 percent as the Wildcats need to take advantage of the raw talent in this room. After the performance on Tuesday, all signs point to this unit doing that on the field in 2021.

Personnel wrinkle shown in practice

Kentucky has concerns about the wide receiver position. There is no hiding from that. To help alleviate that issue, the Wildcats will look to get creative with their personnel packages. Expect some 21 or 22 personnel with either JuTahn McClain or Kavosiey Smoke playing some wide receiver. Of course, 12 personnel will be very popular with Izayah Cummings used as a flex tight end.

On Tuesday morning, Kentucky showed off another package that could be used occasionally.

In a team period, Kentucky flashed off a big grouping where the offense went to 13 personnel — one running back, three tight ends, one wide receiver. Only this time Jeremy Flax came into the lineup at in-line tight end to give Kentucky a formation with six offensive linemen. Talk about a lot of beef.

This could become a short-yardage staple as the Wildcats attempt to take advantage of a loaded offensive line room. However, creativity could still be used. Brenden Bates took some snaps at fullback while pre-snap motion could be heavily involved. Could this play design be coming to the SEC?

Goal-to-go TE jet sweep out of 13 personnel with an extra OT has me intrigued. pic.twitter.com/dWosEZW061

— Adam Luckett (@AdamLuckettKSR) August 13, 2021

Woes in the third phase

Tuesday was not a great practice for the kicking game. Kentucky appears to need some improvement in the third phase.

To begin practice, starting placekicker Matt Ruffolo appeared to miss three consecutive kicks from 40-plus yards. Not great. On Saturday, Mark Stoops informed the media that Wilson Berry was “banged up” at the moment. The Australian was not a practice participant on Tuesday.

The kicking game is essential, and Kentucky must iron out some issues before the season arrives.

Eli Cox

Entering spring football, no one had redshirt sophomore Eli Cox as a starter at right guard. However, the 293-pounder out of Nicholasville (Ky.) West Jessamine has claimed a spot on the Big Blue Wall. The new starter brings brute strength to the line of scrimmage.

“He’s got power,” said offensive line coach Eric Wolford. “We talked about it when we were in the NFL all the time, finding guys coming out of college who have power. You guys saw the contract that the Bills quarterback signed a couple weeks ago — first thing I did was I text that to all my players. One thing you better understand is you better be able to anchor, you better be able protect that quarterback inside out and give him a place to step up. That comes with strength. Your ability to anchor and keep what we call ‘pocket integrity’. And Eli can do that. He’s strong, he works at it. The guy has tremendous work ethic. It’s important to him, and when you have those traits you got a chance to be pretty good.”

That power will be put to good use in run concepts on the right side when Cox gets to team up with senior Darian Kinnard. Look for the Wildcats to lean on that power this season.

Wide receiver notes

• Expectations are high for Josh Ali, and early the super senior is becoming one of the top targets for Will Levis. However, the South Florida native had a couple of drops in the practice. That cannot happen.
• With Wan’Dale Robinson sitting out, Kentucky closed practice with a two-minute drill with 11 personnel. The third wide receiver in that group was walk-on Rahsaan Lewis. The previous open practice star is looking to make a push for playing time.
• Looking for the third wide receiver? Redshirt senior Isaiah Epps was rolling with the ones when three receivers were needed. Meanwhile, redshirt sophomore DeMarcus Harris got most of his snaps with the twos but performed well when targeted.
• Keep an eye out for Chauncey Magwood.