La’Rod King made an interesting comparison Monday at the weekly Kentucky football news conference when asked about the success of the receivers in the first two games of the season.”Randall (Cobb) and Chris (Mathews) are two of the hardest working guys I’ve ever seen in my life, so working with them is like the 1990 Bulls,” King said. “Randall is (Michael) Jordan and we’re the rest of the players.”For historical perspective, the 1990-91 Bulls won the NBA championship with the likes of NBA legends Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and a host of other NBA studs.So maybe the comparison is a little far-fetched for King, but there’s truth behind his comment. King and the UK receivers are more confident this season because of Mike Hartline’s ability to throw the ball down the field. In two wins over Louisville and Western Kentucky, the UK pass offense is averaging 256.0 yards per game, ranked 36th in the nation.After a lack of big-play production a year ago, head coach Joker Phillips made it a point in the offseason to throw the ball deep. “That was a big emphasis that we had going into this year was can we really go down the field and throw the ball,” senior wide receiver Chris Matthews said. “This summer, we worked real hard, even when the coaches weren’t on the field and we weren’t practicing. We would just go out there during days that we didn’t have anything to do to work on the deep balls. I think now we have that confidence.”It’s paid off in two games, with seven passing plays of 20 yards or more. “When you start repping it a lot and start practicing it more than other throws and you become confident that that is a good throw to make to these guys, it comes better out of your hand and you have more confidence in throwing it,” Hartline said. “When you have those guys up front that are solid and are giving you enough time to throw it, it’s not that difficult to do.”Maybe the biggest criticism of Hartline the past few years was his supposed inability to not only throw the deep ball accurately but to throw it all. Some wondered if Hartline had the arm strength to make 30-, 40- and 50-yard throws.Hartline quieted those doubters on the very first play of the season with a 38-yard pass to King and further silenced them in the win over WKU with a perfectly thrown 35-yard touchdown bomb to Cobb. Phillips called the touchdown throw to Cobb “the best throw I’ve seen around here in a long time.””Right now he has as much command of the ball as any quarterback I’ve ever been around,” Phillips said. “He’s seeing what’s going on. He’s been very accurate, especially on the deep balls.”Part of the success has been a breakthrough in trust. Whether it was a nasty habit of dropping easy balls or a receiving corps that lacked multiple playmakers, UK simply did not take a lot of shots down field the last two years.Now, Hartline has faith in tall targets like Matthews, 6-foot-5, and King, 6-4, in addition to Cobb.”You’re more confident in throwing balls up to these guys, wherever they’re at, just to give them a chance,” Hartline said. “Even if they don’t come down with the ball, it’s a good try. It’s a good opportunity to try to make a big play down the field. We know we can’t stop doing that. We always have to give them a chance to make plays.”Phillips said Hartline believes more than ever in his ability to throw the ball into increasingly tight windows where only his receivers can catch the ball. It took Hartline some time to understand, but there is a difference between high school, college and the pros as to when the separation is enough to be “open.””When you are 6-4, 6-5 and you have a 5-8 defensive back on you, that’s open,” Phillips said. “We expect Chris to go up and take it. We expect La’Rod to go up and take it. If you have a small guy versus a big guy, we expect those guys to go up and take the ball. It’s a rebound. We ought to be able to out rebound a 5-8 guy every time.” Don’t dismiss Hartline’s increasing leadership role either as one of the boosts in the passing game. Since being named the starter, Phillips and the players have agreed that Hartline has carried himself differently in practices, meetings, in the games and off the field.”You can see he has the weight off his shoulders,” Phillips said. “The competition that he had at quarterback, he had stronger competition with those two young, talented guys. You could see once it was announced that Mike accepted even a bigger role in leading.”Inside the huddle, King and Matthews said Hartline has learned to shut out the criticism and concerns of fans and turn all of his attention to leading the team. “He’s taking more initiative in the huddle,” Matthews said. “Last year, we were more let’s let Randall calm us down, and now Hartline is taking control of the offense. That’s how it should be. Quarterbacks are supposed to take control of the team because he’s the guy we all depend on.”A number of other factors have helped the pass game improve this year, including the emergence of Matt Roark as a fourth receiver, the tight-end position, the running game and the increased confidence of Matthews off the line of scrimmage.The combination has turned a once plodding passing game and re-evoked memories of the pass happy offense of Andre Woodson, Keenan Burton, Steve Johnson and Jacob Tamme of 2007. “What a difference a year makes,” Phillips said.