Rich Scangarello Disappointed in Clunky Kentucky Offensive Performance

The scoreboard and the box score might indicate otherwise, but it was not a great Saturday afternoon for the Kentucky offense. Rich Scangarello was not happy with his unit’s execution in the 31-0 win over Youngstown State.

“Honestly, I was disappointed with the way we came out today. I’m disappointed in myself as a football coach, I’m disappointed in the offensive staff and I’m disappointed in the players,” UK’s first-year offensive coordinator said after the game.

“We talked about taking things on the right way, being detailed and doing things right. I just didn’t think it was good enough tonight at all. If we don’t improve, we’re going to have some problems.”

The Kentucky offense got off to a slow start. It took four drives for the Wildcats to get into the end zone, thanks to an inefficient run game (2.9 yards per carry) and Will Levis sacks (four total allowed). Levis threw an early interception in the red zone and let one ball sail into the Youngstown State safety’s hands in the third quarter.

Mark Stoops and Scangarello can live with interceptions. They want Will Levis to play aggressively. One thing they will not tolerate is fumbling the football. Kentucky coughed it up four times, but was fortunate enough to only lose the ball once.

“Obviously I gotta coach ’em better and I gotta get ’em tied in together,” said Rich Scangarello. “The pre-snap penalties are completely unacceptable. The turnovers are a lack of regard for the ball. It will not be a problem here as long as I’m the coach. That will get handled. You either take care of the ball or you don’t play. You get lined up, you don’t jump offsides. It’s that simple. We’re going to get it fixed. We have to be better than that. It’s on us as coaches.”

Kentucky’s offensive line was without starting right guard Tashawn Manning and right tackle Jeremy Flax missed some snaps with a minor injury. Despite the absences, there’s no excuse for the lack of execution up front.

“We can make all the excuses we want, but the reality is we have to block ’em better, we gotta call better plays and we gotta do a better job. It’s not just the line. We had two great runs and we false started in the second half that would’ve been big runs,” said the UK offensive coordinator.

The Kentucky offense did not play a clean football game at Kroger Field. Even so, the Wildcats had 480 yards of offense and 10 different players caught passes. Once Rich Scangarello’s offense gets it together, watch out.