Passing Game Shows Encouraging Signs in Opener

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For essentially the entirety of the last three seasons, Kentucky’s formula for victory has been to build a lead and turn to a bruising ground game to bleed the clock. There have of course been comebacks and dramatic wins along the way, but more often than not the Wildcats have run the ball late.
 
But Saturday, even as UK built a double-digit lead on Toledo midway through the third quarter, Terry Wilson and the Cats turned to the pass.
 
“It took a minute for us to get things rolling I would say, but that was definitely our game plan,” Wilson said. “That’s what the coaches wanted us to do and they started calling it and we just started making plays downfield.”
 
For the first 30 minutes, the ground game ruled the day. The Cats ran the ball behind a running-back trio of AJ Rose, Kavosiey Smoke and Chris Rodriguez 20 times and threw only seven. After halftime, that flipped.
 
As UK outscored Toledo 24-3 to start the second half and turn a competitive season opener into a comfortable 38-24 win, Wilson completed 14-of-19 passes for 190 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Improbably, 11 of UK’s final 15 plays of the game were called passes.
 
“We have a lot of weapons on our team,” Wilson said. “When we get the ball to them and let them do what they need to do, it’s really explosive.”
 
For the game, Wilson completed 19-of-26 passes for 246 yards. Four of his completions went for 25 yards or more and eight different players caught passes as Wilson enjoyed solid protection all afternoon.
 
“Well, they made some competitive catches,” Mark Stoops said. “And, again, I think later in the game when we were just settling in running our offense, throwing it, drop-back pass, we were efficient. That’s why late in the game we were trying to throw more as well.”
 
Lynn Bowden Jr., unsurprisingly, led the way with six catches for 77 yards, but he was hardly the only threat. Ahmad Wagner caught three balls for 57 yards (and of course drew two more pass interference penalties), Allen Dailey had a pair of catches and Bryce Oliver and Josh Ali both made competitive grabs for touchdowns.
 
In spite of those encouraging signs, Stoops and offensive coordinator Eddie Gran are still far from satisfied. Early third-down issues, a pair of lost fumbles and an ill-advised backwards pass by Wilson that torpedoed a drive are among the among the miscues that must be addressed.
 
“We’re always going to be grateful with a victory,” Stoops said. “Never going to apologize for winning a football game. I was proud of them and the good things that we did and staying the courses and staying patient and imposing our will late in the game. We’re a physical football team. I think that started the show. So that was good.
 
“There is a lot of negative. You know, a lot of things we need to improve on, starting with putting the ball on the ground.”
 
To be 1-0 is a good feeling, but the mood postgame suggested the Cats are thinking as much about what they can do better as anything. Particularly after beating a Toledo team that’s reached a bowl in five straight seasons, that’s a good sign.
 
“We just got higher expectations for ourselves,” Bowden said. “We beat them. Toledo’s a good team. They came out and played their best game against us. So we gotta get back in the film room, see what we did wrong and come back harder.”