Liam Coen: "We're not giving up on anybody," but improvement must come soon

Kentucky’s offense has not lived up to its preseason billing through seven games this year. Transfer quarterback Devin Leary has not looked like the most sought-after signal caller in the portal he was proclaimed to be while the sophomore wide receiver duo of Barion Brown and Dane Key has hit an untimely year two slump.

If it wasn’t already, that all became crystal clear during Saturday night’s 38-21 home loss to the unranked Missouri Tigers. Leary barely completed over 50 percent of his passes and finished with just 120 passing yards in addition to two touchdowns and two interceptions. Brown and Key combined for four receptions for a mere 39 yards. Even fifth-year senior wide receiver Tayvion Robinson has looked like a shell of himself the last two games after a hot start to his season. Drops have become all-too-common of a theme.

A lot of the projected success during Liam Coen’s second run in Lexington was predicated on all those guys playing like dudes. Without them consistently producing big plays, it’s left Kentucky’s offense tasting like a stale (and worse, predictable) product. After losing a handful of wide receivers lower on the depth chart to the transfer portal during the offseason, there’s not really anywhere else Coen can turn. Kentucky has no choice at this stage in the season to stick with what they have — the current group simply has to perform better.

“A little thin,” Coen said postgame regarding the wide receiver room. “We wanna get those guys better. We’re not giving up on anybody. We’re trying to get everybody better every day. We gotta start throwing and catching the football better. We gotta start making sure we’re throwing the ball to guys that are catching the football. But I believe in those guys, I believe in them. We’re not gonna give up on them but it’s frustrating. It’s hard.”

Kentucky came out of the gates ready to roll against Missouri. The Wildcats took a commanding 14-0 lead before the first quarter could come to an end. Running back Ray Davis, who is playing at an All-SEC level so far this season, was nearly unstoppable in the first quarter. Davis ran 13 times for nearly 100 yards and caught a touchdown before halftime.

But then, Coen went away from what was working. Part of it was Missouri finding its footing on offense and putting more pressure on the ‘Cats, but that explanation isn’t going to cut it. After running the ball 18 times in the first half, that number dipped to 13 in the second. For whatever reason, Coen pivoted from force-feeding Davis in favor of putting the load on Leary. Davis had just seven second-half carries while Leary threw the ball 18 times, two of those passes resulting in interceptions. The offense began to press and it showed on the field.

“Couple forces. He’s trying to do too much at the end,” Coen said of his quarterback’s play down the stretch against Mizzou. “Just trying to make a play, running away from people because we didn’t protect well at all on third down tonight. I think he was probably pressing a little bit at that point. Up until then, I thought he had played pretty well. I thought he was playing pretty well and managing the game really well, making some throws, made some runs, helped us out. But when things started to go in this direction, we just never really stopped the bleeding.”

As Coen said, the offensive line was not good for Kentucky on Saturday night. Missouri finished with four sacks and three quarterback hits. Leary did not have a clean pocket for most of the game. But what’s the excuse for failing to run the ball more when that proved to be a winning formula early on? Regardless, if there isn’t a noticeable improvement from the quarterback and his receivers, Kentucky’s offense won’t look any better the rest of the way.