Blue-White Ties Bow on Spring Improvement

It was a night Kentucky had been looking forward to for six weeks.

Working hard in practice for more than a month, the Wildcats saw their Kroger Blue-White Spring Game as a sort of light at the end of the tunnel.

“It’s real fun, exciting, encouraging,” Sihiem King said. “It just makes you want to make plays in front of those people out there because they’re so great. They’re so into it. It just makes you want to grind for them.”

Grinding is exactly UK has done for the last six weeks of spring practice. Friday night’s scrimmage – won by the Blue team primarily made up of UK’s starters, 31-14 – served as the punctuation mark to close out the spring, during which Mark Stoops said the Cats made “great strides.”

“It was a good spring,” Stoops said. “It was a good spring game, mainly because we stayed healthy.”

UK distributed 37,172 tickets to its annual spring game and the fans in attendance were treated to an entertaining game that showcased the Wildcats’ improving depth and physicality. King was the standout on offense, the running back rolling up 124 total yards and two touchdowns in taking the lion’s share of the touches for the Blue team.

“He’s kind of been doing that all spring,” offensive coordinator Eddie Gran said. “I felt like he was very productive. And we didn’t do a lot of stuff now. We’ve got stuff for him that I think you’re going to be able to see him evolve, but you can see that he can make people miss.”

Star rising sophomore Benny Snell, meanwhile, spent most of his time on the sideline after totaling 42 yards and a touchdown on six touches. That was by design.

“We got some good work in,” Snell said. “We just grew as a team, I can tell, the whole spring in general. A lot of guys got to show what they can do this game too, so I just feel overall it was good for everybody.”

Quarterback Stephen Johnson is among the players who had a productive spring, though he was disappointed in himself for getting “greedy” in the spring game. Johnson completed 8-of-18 passes for 106 yards and an interception and will enter the summer with a clear focus.

“Just try to stay consistent,” Johnson said. “I think I had a really good spring thus far. Just obviously today, like I said, I got too greedy. So just try to be as consistent as I can with my throws and I think I’ll be just fine.”

Johnson’s backup, Gunnar Hoak, impressed in completing 16-of-22 passes for 174 yards and two touchdowns, adding a rushing touchdown for good measure. He helped guide the White team to a halftime tie against the starters.

The score on Friday, however, mattered little. What does matter is everything UK accomplished as a team this spring.

“We got a lot of work in this spring,” Stoops said. “I was very proud of our players, their effort for a long time. We talked last summer about their capacity to handle more. Well they took a lot of coaching for a long time. We have been in spring ball for six weeks, with one week off for spring break. So to keep their attention for that long to be very disciplined, to come in and early in the morning, have lifts, meetings on our off days, and then practice Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday for five weeks, we got a lot of work in.”

Getting in that much focused work, there was bound to be some progress.

“We made some strides,” Stoops said. “We still have a ways to go in certain areas, but I like this team. There’s certainly fewer question marks coming out of spring than in years past. So, I feel like there’s a lot to build on.”

After a much-needed day off on Sunday, coaches will complete evaluations of the spring and final meetings with players on Monday and Tuesday. Then it’s time for the coaches to recruit and the players to get a short rest. Then it’s back to running and lifting.

This time, the Cats have regular-season games to fuel their grind.

“We’re going to put the foot on the gas,” Stoops said. “After these guys get a little bit of rest, then we got to have a great summer now. It’s a new phase. They got to finish strong academically and then it’s a full steam ahead across the board.”