Balanced Offense Leads Kentucky Past Ohio
Kentucky offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan has been looking for his unit to produce more, but also to produce with balance. In Saturday’s win over Ohio University, Hamdan saw his Cats do exactly that.
As Kentucky rolled to a 41-6 victory, the Cats showed that balance that they have been striving to achieve. The Cats had a season-high 488 yards of total offense in the game, 282 through the air and 206 on the ground. UK head coach Mark Stoops was pleased with the balance that his offense showed on Saturday.
“It’s good to get back in the win column. I feel like the last couple of weeks, our guys have worked really hard to get things corrected,” Stoops said. “I thought we were very balanced. In the first half, I know we had a lot of yards and a lot of first downs, I wish we would have had more points.”
Quarterback Brock Vandagriff had a solid performance on Saturday, connecting on 17 of 24 through the air for 237 yards. He also rushed seven times for 21 yards.
On the ground, five Cats rushed for at least 20 yards, led by freshman Jamarion Wilcox who had a career-high 82 rushing yards. Demie Sumo-Karngbaye had 47 rushing yards and a pair of touchdowns, while backup quarterback Gavin Wimsatt rushed nine times for 25 yards and a touchdown. Barion Brown had one rush for 23 yards and a touchdown and Vandagriff added his 21 yards on the ground.
Stoops was pleased with both Vandagriff and Wimsatt on Saturday.
“Good to see Gavin get some reps,” Stoops said. “I thought Brock did a really good job as well. Got some yards, it was good to get some yards, get the ball in the air a little bit.”
The UK head coach also likes what Wilcox can bring to the offense.
“Jamarion is, you’ve heard me say it many times, I believed in his talent,” Stoops said. “He’s a very good player. We are leaning on him to be consistent on and off the field. Be on time to meetings, little things. As he gets more snaps, he’ll get better. As far as running the ball, he’s tough as nails.”
Four Cats caught multiple passes in the game. Dane Key had a career-high 145 yards receiving on seven receptions, which tied his career best. Brown had five catches for 28 yards, while Sumo-Karngbaye had three catches for 38 yards. Jordan Dingle caught two passes for 26 yards.
Stoops thought that Key’s effort came due to a lot of work on the junior’s part.
“I think it just shows, for all of those guys, they all, as a group, work hard in practice. If you do things right and you continue to work hard, eventually that ball will find you,” Stoops said. “I think it’s a testament to how consistent he’s been, the way he’s worked and he’s put his head down and gotten better.”
While the offensive performance on Saturday was better, Stoops knows that there’s still room for improvement.
“There’s a lot of things we can do better,” he said.
While that may be the case, the Cats, on this Saturday, showed a balanced attack that led to a runaway win.
