Team Effort Leading to Ground-Game Improvement

Kentucky’s potent ground attack, perhaps more than anything else, was the driving force behind a strong finish to the 2016 season. A 5-2 start to the 2017 season had happened without the same kind of production.
 
To get to a sixth win, UK relied on the triumphant return of the run game.
 
The Wildcats rolled up 289 rushing yards – a season high by more than 80 yards – to take down Tennessee, 29-26.
 
“I think it was real important,” Mark Stoops said of the UK run game. “I think everybody’s starting to realize that. I think certainly y’all realize that. I talk about that all the time, needing to run the football. You have to be able to do it.”
 
It was Southeastern Conference Co-Offensive Player of the Week Benny Snell who did most of the running.
 
“It was important for Benny to get on track,” Stoops said. “And I think, just like I sat up here last week and talked about it, you saw that. Benny played his best game by far. He was much more detailed and much more accurate in what he was doing, both in running the football and his protections.”
 
Days after he told a small group of media he would reach 100 yards rushing in the game, Snell exploded for a season-high 180 yards and three touchdowns. He did it all after losing three yards and a fumble on his first carry of the game.
 
“When the fumble happened, I had seen color early, but that’s on me,” Snell said. “I’m able to take that fault because that shouldn’t have never even happened. Getting back was easy. My team kept me composed and we knew that we were better than this team. So coming out and executing was just easy.”
 
Snell gave credit to his offensive line for exactly how easy it was. And in fact, Snell knew it was going to be that way all week.
 
“I knew going into the week of practice how well the linemen were doing, that when it was game time it was just going to be easy,” Snell said.
 
After struggling at times this season, Stoops said the offensive line was more consistent against Tennessee. Stoops challenged the group to improve during the week and players stepped up, and they were helped along by the fact that Logan Stenberg, Drake Jackson and Bunchy Stallings were locked it at the guard and center positions. That was a departure from the frequent rotating UK had done through the first half of the season.
 
“I felt good about that,” Stoops said. “We talked about that last week in here. Some of you observed that and asked if continuity was the issue, and I acknowledged that. I think it was. It is. The fact that we played all three guys on the interior for the entire game did help us.”
 
 
“Everything’s starting to come together, just like I thought it would,” Snell said. “It all starts at practice. I just feel like it all starts at practice, and the harder guys go and the more we’re closer, the more we execute.”
 
The final piece of the on-field puzzle is quarterback Stephen Johnson, who keys much of UK’s ground game with his decision-making. If his career-high 84 rushing yards weren’t proof enough, Stoops said Johnson was excellent in that area.
 
“He made clean reads all day,” Stoops said. “That was the good thing. Some of this year—which he has to make a lot of decisions whether it’s (run-pass options) or zone-reads, he has to make a lot of decisions obviously. We would be maybe just a fraction off here or there, as I mentioned. Whether it be RPO, the week before I mentioned some of that where he had a few reads that he missed. He was very accurate this week with making decisions.”
 
Along with the blocking of UK’s tight ends and receivers, the offensive coaching staff also gets credit for the ground game click. Stoops doesn’t want to lose sight of that.
 
“Coach (Eddie) Gran, Coach (John) Schlarman, the whole offensive staff, they did a very good job,” Stoops said. “Let’s just leave it at that. I don’t want to get too technical, but the bind they were putting Tennessee in in the run game was complicated and was very good. Very, very efficient. It was — everybody just thinks it’s brawn and running the ball and being physical, and that’s a big part of it — but he had them very much off balance.”
 
Now, the goal is to sustain all that this weekend against Ole Miss.
 
“Everything’s starting to come together, just like I thought it would,” Snell said. “It all starts at practice. I just feel like it all starts at practice, and the harder guys go and the more we’re closer, the more we execute.”