Cats Flash Explosive Potential in Spring Game
Benny Snell Jr. was right there on the sideline. He was as interested as anyone in what the Kentucky offense would look like without him.
It’s only the spring game, but the Wildcats seem to have the pieces – and explosive ones at that – to score plenty of points in 2019.
Kentucky’s Blue team, composed largely of players expected to contend for starting jobs next year, was dominant in the annual Blue-White Spring Game Friday night at Kroger Field. Blue rolled up 609 total yards to lead the way to a 64-10 victory over White.
“What was good was last week we got our tail kicked,” Eddie Gran said. “Our defense got after us. They’re doing a heck of a job over there on defense, so it was good for us to get some confidence going into the summer. We’ll see what happens.”
The Blue team – quarterbacked by Terry Wilson to start the game – scored on all 10 of its drives, including nine touchdowns. Three of those touchdowns came on plays of 27 yards or longer and the Blue team had eight total plays of 20 yards or longer and four of 40 yards or longer.
“That’s usually what strive for, is those big plays like that,” Wilson said. “I feel like we did a good job out there just letting it rip, just throwing the ball around. We were throwing it around. We were throwing and catching.”
There was no question about that. Wilson completed 10-of-12 passes for 191 yards and two touchdowns, while Gunnar Hoak was 14 of 15 for 174 yards and two touchdowns for Blue after coming over from playing his first few series with White.
“We just stepped it up,” Wilson said. “Coach Gran has been challenging us. Coach (Mark) Stoops has been challenging us to move the ball down the field and make some deep throws. We’ve been doing it the whole spring and it’s just good to see that we can do that. We’ll be doing a lot of that this season too.”
Wilson hit one of those deep balls on the game’s very first drive, delivering a strike to Lynn Bowden Jr. for a 42-yard score. Bowden, who played little after early in the second quarter, hauled in all four of his targets for 66 receiving yards and that touchdown.
“He’s the guy, he’s the playmaker and we need to build around him for him to get open a little bit more where they can’t double-team from the safety and the nickel position,” Gran said. “We’ve moved around him a lot though to make sure that doesn’t happen. … He’s so smart. He knows every position and that’s (allowed) us to get him some more balls. He caught almost 70 last year and you’d like to hope he’d catch close to 90 this year.”
Friday was a good step toward developing weapons around Bowden. Isaiah Epps had four catches for 97 yards – including a beauty of a 60-yarder – and redshirt freshman Bryce Oliver had five catches for 63 yards for White and three catches for 42 yards and a touchdown when he switched to Blue.
“That was good to see,” Gran said. “It was good to see (Epps) finish that long ball. He had a chance on Tuesday to do it and he didn’t do it, but he did it today and that was good. And then Bryce came up with some big catches. If we evolve out there, we’ll be a better football team.”
UK’s backfield is also in the midst of an evolution as the Wildcats work to replace Snell, their all-time leading rusher. A.J. Rose figures to step in as the starter, but with plenty of support from Kavosiey Smoke and Chris Rodriguez. That’s exactly what happened Friday, as Rose carried 11 times for 86 yards and three touchdowns, Smoke five times for 132 yards and two scores and Oliver 17 times for 71 yards and a touchdown.
“As you can see, our running backs do a good job,” Rose said. “We get that ball and we go. If we get a good push at the line and we get past the second level, it’s curtains.”
Rose and Smoke each flashed that kind of home-run hitting ability, scoring on runs of 42 and 87 yards, respectively. Rodriguez didn’t get as many opportunities for big plays, as 16 of his 17 carries came for White, but he showed plenty of power, as well solid hands on a pair of catches out of the backfield.
“I think you will see more of us catching the ball out of the backfield this year,” Rose said. “All of us got great hands and when Terry doesn’t see anything downfield, he’ll always check it down to us.”
UK has work to do in developing depth and scoring 64 points isn’t likely to be a regular occurrence in 2019. But with a confident Wilson, deep threats outside and talented backs, the goal is simple.
“We want to score more points this year,” Gran said. “That’s for sure. It was fun. It was fun just to build some confidence.”
