The 5 Most Insightful Quotes from Kentucky Football Media Day
Kentucky Football Media Day was slightly overshadowed by the NCAA news that followed shortly after the event concluded. Rather than letting the 10 vacated wins fester, let’s weed through the coach-speak.
For Kentucky football fans who keep up to date with everything from Mark Stoops, Brad White, and Bush Hamdan, today you heard a lot of questions that have been asked before. In the midst of it all, there are a few things that shine a little more light on the 2024 Wildcats that were previously unclear.
Bush Hamdan on Finding the Right Mouths to Feed
You can throw a rock around the Joe Craft Football Training Facility and hit a playmaker every time. They are not in short supply. Ja’Mori Maclin had more than 1,000 receiving yards last year and he’s the third-most talked-about receiver around the fanbase.
The proliferation of playmakers has excited Big Blue Nation, but how will the ball be distributed? We all know there’s only one ball. Wide receivers are competing against tight ends and running backs for the opportunity to make plays on Saturdays.
“You have your position room battles and players think, here I am, I’m second on the depth chart at receiver or I’m third on the depth chart at receiver. The biggest thing I’m just echoing to them is we have battles from group to group. And what I mean by that is, there are times you are making the decision where we are playing with 13 personnel, three tight ends in the game. There’s groups where we like 12 personnel, we like 11 personnel,” said Hamdan.
“Right now, we feel like we can go out there with four wide receivers and do some different things. So I think that’s the biggest thing, not necessarily schematically the change in plays, but who is going to do those plays and that is what we have been stressing to players all along. We have to find those guys who have the ability to do a lot of different things and if they can do a lot of different things well, then they will be on the field.”
Kentucky Likes Its Safety Room
While the cornerbacks took a bunch of flak for the porous pass defense a year ago, the inconsistency from the safeties was overshadowed. They showed a ton of progress at the end of 2022, but that momentum did not carry over into the following season. Some of that can be attributed to injury issues, but it made me wonder if they actually have the chops to execute in this defense.
As we shared earlier today, Brad White really likes this group of safeties. Ty Bryant got invaluable experience last fall, helping ensure Kentucky is two-deep at both spots. There’s also a player we’re probably all sleeping on, Kristian Story. There’s a reason why: He transferred from Alabama on the day Nick Saban retired. Even if he doesn’t get the start, he’s going to play a lot for the Cats this fall.
“You’ve got a guy who’s long, he’s athletic, he knows how to play the safety position and he has played it in the SEC,” the Kentucky defensive coordinator shared at the podium. “Obviously, playing in a system like Alabama, he knows how to adjust to a lot of different coverages, checks, run fits, so that’s not going to be something that was going to overwhelm him, and it hasn’t. Personality‑wise, he has come in and he fits with that room.”
Two Questions that Keep Hamdan Up at Night
“How about that tempo?”
“Are the tight ends finally gonna get the ball?”
The latter is nothing new to Kentucky football fans. We’ve been wanting tight ends to catch more passes since CJ Conrad was a freshman. The former has been the primary talking point of the offseason. Hamdan was only slightly kidding when he said the questions keep him up at night, but the reality is there are only so many ways he can say, “This offense will not be slow.”
The New Kicker Might Be a Baller
Let’s be clear, Alex Raynor is Kentucky’s placekicker this fall. The Georgia Southern only missed one field goal last season. He’s very consistent. The good news is Kentucky might have a damn good successor waiting in the wing.
“Jacob Kauwe will eventually replace Alex after this year, but you don’t know. Maybe he’ll hit a few this year too,” said Stoops. “Yesterday was the first time saw him kick live and he nailed a 50-yarder right down the middle with plenty of room (to spare).”
What Stoops Needs to See from the Kentucky Run Game
Tempo has been the primary talking point around the offense all offseason. The next one up is the run game. Even though Ray Davis wracked up more than 1,000 yards a year ago, the Kentucky rushing attack was inconsistent.
Mark Stoops wants the offense to get back to being physical at the point of attack. As much as the pro-style uses the pass, he still wants to run the damn ball. In practical terms, this is what it looks like.
“We were at our best… when the entire stadium knew we were going to run the ball and we still ran the ball for some success. There are critical moments and you’re still going to need to do that. Sometimes when you are bleeding the clock or trying to win the game in a four‑minute offense, you have to be tough and physical and run the ball when everybody knows you are going to run the ball.”
Negative Nancy Thought: There’s no way you can expect this offense to be able to do that. That offensive line had All-Americans and future pros leading the way for Lynn Bowden, Benny Snell, and Chris Rodriguez, all-time greats to ever play at this school.
Positive Patty Thought: There won’t be a running attack in America that is challenged more in practice than this one. If they can figure out a way to consistently run the ball against Deone Walker and Co., they can run the ball against anyone, even when they know it’s coming.
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