UK Offensive Playcalling Breakdown Through 4 Weeks

Now that we are 1/3 of the way through this season, we can really start to make some judgements on not only the play-calling tendencies of Liam Coen but where the UK offense is excelling. This offense has some really explosive tendencies, with 28 plays of 20 yards or more already this year. They could break one at any time. And that is a nice weapon to have. But the consistency on offense has just not been there. Devin Leary has been mistake prone at times and terrific at times. Florida is a different level of talent on Saturday and the offense probably needs to be better to win. But I think we know what kind of squad we got based on 4 games of numbers below:

1ST DOWN

Against Vanderbilt
Passing Plays: 6-11, 44 yards, 1 TD. 1 INT, 1 sack allowed
Running Plays: 17 rushes for 66 yards, 1 TD

Combined Season Stats
Passing Plays: 30-50, 369 yards, 3 TD, 1 INT, 4 sacks allowed
Running Plays: 49 rushes for 183 yards, 1 TD

Breakdown: It’s not that the UK offense is bad on 1st down. It’s just they aren’t that great either. They are as average a team getting a set of downs going as you could imagine. Against Vandy, they averaged a little under 4 yards per play. The 6 completions went for 6.5 yards average. The 17 rushes went for 3.9 yards per carry. That’s all fine and good but what is crazy is how explosive UK has been on 2nd down (see below) and have not shown any of that on 1st down. So far this season the count on passing vs. rushing plays called by Liam Coen is 54 to 49 in favor of the passing game.

2ND DOWN

Against Vanderbilt
Passing Plays: 6-10, 129 yards, 1 INT
Running Plays: 10 rushes for 75 yards, 2 TD

Combined Season Stats
Passing Plays: 26-44, 468 yards, 3 TD, 2 INT (1 fumble)
Rushing Plays: 32 rushes for 340 yards, 6 TD

Breakdown: For the fourth straight game, for reasons I can’t figure out, the UK offense has so explosive on 2nd down. They averaged 10.2 yards per play against Vanderbilt. For the season, they have averaged 10.8 yards per play. That is unbelievable and has basically saved UK’s pedestrian production on 1st down. But is that sustainable? I keep questioning if it is and yet they keep getting it done.

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3RD DOWN AND LONG (6 Yards or More)

Against Vanderbilt
Passing Plays: 1-6, 12 yards (converted 1 of 6)
Running Plays: 1 rush for 22 yards, 1 QB scramble (converted 1 of 1)

Combined Season Stats
Passing Plays: 11-23, 169 yards, 3 TD, 1 INT (converted 7 of 23)
Rushing Plays: 4 rushes for 29 yards, 3 QB scrambles (converted 2 of 4)

Breakdown: It’s not so much that UK went 2 of 7 in 3rd and long scenarios. That’s pretty par for the course. It’s that Leary only completed 1 of 6 passes. This was his worst performance of the season in this scenario. Whether it’s the receivers not getting open or Leary not being accurate, UK wasn’t giving themselves many chances. And again, way too many 3rd and long plays versus 3rd and short. A total of SEVEN 3rd and longs against FOUR 3rd and shorts. You would like to see those numbers flipped.

3RD DOWN AND SHORT (5 Yards or Less)

Against Vanderbilt
Passing Plays: 2-2, 20 yards (converted 2 of 2)
Running Plays: 2 rushes for 2 yards (converted 1 of 2)

Combined Season Stats
Passing Plays: 6-7, 54 yards (converted 6 of 7)
Rushing Plays: 5 rushes for 13 yards (converted 4 of 5)

Breakdown: The UK offense continues to be rock solid here and that will need to continue as we hit the meat of the schedule. They did have their first failure in the run game, getting stuffed on a 3rd and 1 against Vandy. But still 10 of 12 on the season overall and you can absolutely live with that.

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