Mark Stoops takes aim at Undisciplined Kentucky Offense

Kentucky totaled 480 yards of offense in a 31-0 win over Youngstown State. Immediately after the game, offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello described it as a “disappointing” performance. Two days later, Mark Stoops doubled down.

“After reviewing the film and coming in here, (I’m) really kind of disappointed and a little unhappy with some of the undisciplined play that we had from this past week…” Stoops opened his weekly Monday press conference.

“Offensively, there’s some things we’ve got to get ironed out. It just felt like it was a person here, a person there, just undisciplined play. Any time you have 10 penalties, three turnovers, four fumbles, and you do that at home, it just shows you that that attention to detail was not there. And we go on the road a week before and play in a hostile environment and have two penalties and play relatively clean, then we play at home against Youngstown and put that kind of play out there. It’s not very good. There’s so many things we need to improve on.”

Run Games Woes Continue for the Offense

As Stoops pointed out, Kentucky played a clean football game at Florida. In the second half the running game started to look like its old self, moving the line of scrimmage to average 5.7 yards per carry. After taking a step forward in Gainesville, they took two steps back against Youngstown State, allowing 10 tackles for loss and gaining only 2.9 yards per carry.

“We didn’t play our best up front on the offensive line and we got to continue to improve,” said Stoops.

The Kentucky head coach ran into center Eli Cox while making coffee before the press conference. The two agreed that the Big Blue Wall’s play is not up to their high standards.

“The little things in practice are starting to show up on Saturday and so we just got to do a better job.”

Mistakes aren’t All on the Offensive Line

Will Levis was sacked four times by the Penguins. Two of those are on the quarterback. When he had time and made the right decisions, Levis was on point, completing 77% of his passes to 10 different receivers for 377 yards. While Stoops was encouraged to see the young playmakers in the open field, that was not always the case when they were asked to block.

“They’re going to learn (to block) or they won’t be catching passes,” Stoops said. You could feel the anger boiling up behind the microphone.

“There was one play with a missed assignment. It goes for a negative four yards and everybody’s gonna say it’s on the offensive line when we have it all sealed up. If we do what we’re supposed to do it’s probably a 20-yard gain. Instead, it’s a 4-yard loss. But that’s not on the offensive line. It’s on a wide receiver completely whiffing.”

It also applies to the tight ends. Three players combined to catch five passes for 72 yards, but Vince Marrow’s group isn’t up to snuff in the run game.

“I think they’re too inconsistent as well. I think they could be a really strong point for us and, and I don’t think they’re as strong at the point of attack as they can be as well in the run game. They can help us and and do more,” said Mark Stoops. “As a group, they’ve done some good things, but just like just like most of our team, we can be better.”

A Week for the Kentucky Offense to Get Right

Kentucky will host Northern Illinois in the Cats’ final tune-up before going back on the road for another SEC road game against Ole Miss. This week of practice will be an opportunity for Mark Stoops to wake up the Kentucky offense.

“It’s a matter of getting everybody on the same page. Again, it’s not a matter of are we able to do it. We’re talented enough to do it. There’s no excuses. We just got to play better. We’ve got to be more disciplined and again, the attention to detail, the little things. It’s always a person here and person there that’s throwing us off offensively.”