UK Eying Complete Offensive Performance behind Rejuvenated Wilson
As talented as he might be and as nicely as his nickname rolls off the tongue, Kentucky’s coaching staff never expected it to come easy for Terry Wilson.
He is, after all, starting at quarterback in Division-I college football for the first time.
“Anytime you have a first-year starter, you’re going to go through some ups and downs,” Mark Stoops said. “They have to play. They have to go through some failure to learn from those things at times, and he’s getting much better. He’s been much more consistent.”
Indeed, Wilson is in the midst of his best two-game stretch as a Wildcat. In games against Missouri and Georgia, Wilson has completed 45-of-60 passes for 493 yards for two touchdowns and just one interception. Though the second of two games was a loss that spelled the end of UK’s SEC championship hopes, Wilson’s play in it is encouraging for the final three games of the regular season and an eventual bowl game.
“Everything feels natural,” Wilson said. “It feels how it should feel. Like I said a long time ago, that just goes along with experience. I feel like I’ve been relaxed and just playing.”
Prior to those two games, Wilson was a shell of his current self. He completed just 16-of-29 passes for 126 yards and UK’s offense unsurprisingly sputtered. UK’s ground game and defense did enough to salvage a split of two games against Texas A&M and Vanderbilt, but it was clear the Wildcats would need improved play at the quarterback position.
In turn, there was a shakeup at quarterback leading into the Missouri game, as Stoops said “several” signal callers would see the field. That turned out to be true, as Danny Clark came in for a short-yardage situation and Gunnar Hoak replaced Wilson for a few series in the second half. Wilson responded, leading a memorable game-winning touchdown drive against the Tigers and playing well against an elite Georgia team.
“I’ve been letting it rip and just going out there and trusting my instincts and letting it go,” Wilson said. “I’ve been feeling really comfortable. I’ve been feeling comfortable with the o-line protecting and my wide outs are getting off the ball and being where they need to be.”
Now, the coaching staff likes what they’re seeing from the redshirt sophomore.
“I think he’s getting better,” assistant head coach for the offense Eddie Gran said. “I think he took a step forward. I think his confidence level is back.”
With that growth in confidence, Wilson is also showing an improvement in technique ahead of a matchup between No. 11 UK (7-2, 5-2 SEC) and Tennessee (4-5, 1-4 SEC) on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
“You can see his footwork was so good in the (Georgia) game,” co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Darin Hinshaw said. “You constantly preach it, but there were some habits he had that you revert back to because that’s what he’s used to doing. Actually you could see in his footwork that he sat in the pocket. He was playing like a pocket quarterback should play. That’s why his accuracy was so much better and his decision-making was really good.”
As Wilson and the Cats have improved in the passing game, the running game has slowed down. Through the first five games, UK averaged 254.2 rushing yards. Over the last four, that average stands at just 131.3 yards with UK failing to reach 100 yards three times.
Some of that has come from opposing defenses selling out to stop the run, which Wilson’s emergence as a passer figures to help. At the same time, the Cats know they have improvements to make – and don’t think for a second Wilson doesn’t play a role in that.
“That comes from the quarterback position too,” Hinshaw said. “There’s a bunch runs against Georgia where you see Benny (Snell Jr.) go for one yard and it was because Terry missed a read or Terry didn’t throw a bubble where he had an opportunity to do that. That’s where Terry has to get better, is to be able to take what the defense gives us.”
If that all sounds familiar, you’re thinking right. UK had a quarterback two years ago who went through the same process.
Stephen Johnson, before he became one of the most beloved Wildcats in recent memory, was a first-year starter on a run-first squad. Midway through the 2016 season, after transferring from junior college, Johnson struggled badly in back-to-back games – one a road loss to an SEC foe and the other a seven-point home win over Vanderbilt. His stats in the two games – 23-of-46 passing for 138 yards – were nearly identical to Wilson’s in that similar stretch.
Johnson would rebound by throwing for 500 combined yards over his next two games in regaining his confidence just like Wilson has, but the best was yet to come. UK is hoping that, as the running game rounds back into form with Wilson leading the way, a similarly balanced performance like the one that yielded UK’s biggest win of 2016 is yet to come.
“If you remember Stephen Johnson, when he got to this point in his career, he started to get better and better and better at doing that, which caused a lot of grief for defenses,” Hinshaw said. “It led up to the Louisville game his first year where you saw that explosion of the pass and the run.”
