The demoralizing loss to south Carolina this weekend leaves the Wildcats looking for answers heading into the bye week. Two uninspiring wins over Western Kentucky and Central Michigan were followed up by a tough loss to a bad Louisville team and three blow-out losses in Kentucky’s first three weeks of conference play. The Kentucky defense has played better than expected at times and has been awful at others, but the offense has been consistently awful from September first all the way to today. The wheels are coming off of this team and a bowl season is looking less likely every week. Fans are becoming increasingly anxious over the direction of the program and the slide looks to at least slow for the next two weeks until Kentucky takes on Jacksonville State.
Where do we go from here? That’s a deep question that Joker will have to find the answer to as soon as possible. Here are the most obvious issues…
1. The offensive line has struggled mightily throughout the season and injuries have prevented the unit from gelling. Now with three seniors and two juniors that all have starting experience back healthy, better play from the entire group will likely determine the direction of the offense.
2. The receivers have struggled to catch the ball, run effective routes, get open, and make plays. Junior La’Rod King has shown glimpses of stardom, but inconsistent play has prevented him from breaking out as the go-to guy in the passing game.
3. The tight ends have struggled in pass protection and run blocking in addition to being non-existent as receivers. For a position that was supposed to be deep and talented, no one has been able to step up and claim the starting job and make a serious impact on the offense.
4. The play of quarterback Morgan Newton has not been up to par. He appears to have actually regressed as the season has progressed and is now looking worse than he did as a true freshman two seasons ago. His passes have been inaccurate and perhaps more disturbing than that, he has not taken any semblance of a leadership role for the offense. While he has been relatively effective as a runner, this is and should have always been a last resort in Kentucky’s pro-style offense.
5. The defensive backfield has been a nightmare. With two senior cornerbacks and two junior safeties, the unit is experienced and has shown in previous years that they have talent. Average receivers have torched this secondary for huge gains and game altering plays on a weekly basis.
6. The defensive front seven has been the lone bright spot on the team in most games, but the group has struggled to get to the quarterback this season despite an aggressive scheme and linebackers blitzing on a regular basis. The South Carolina game saw the defensive line and linebackers all register sacks, but that is just one game out of six.
7. The offensive play calling has been unimaginative and mundane. The Kentucky offense has gotten consistently worse since last season and the loss of several playmakers has exposed some serious inadequacies in the scheme this team is utilizing.
So, what can the staff do to fix all of these problems? Of course I don’t know the answers to that (if I did, my paycheck would be a lot bigger). Here are some of my ideas to help though…
1. Water down the offense. Obviously Newton is struggling at this point, but he has won in Jordan-Hare Stadium and Stanford Stadium in his career and can still be an effective player. Treat Newton like a freshman again and take away the portion of the playbook that is causing this offense to stall.
2. Give some of the younger players a chance over the next month. Throw Eric Simmons and Dale Trimble in at cornerback. Give Glenn Faulkner and Ashely Lowery a shot at safety. See if throwing Brandon Gainer in at running back or Rashad Cunningham in at receiver can spark the offense. The older players have had half the season to show up and have not. What do you have to lose by giving some of the younger guys a shot?
3. Scrap the devotion to the pro-style offense. This is a big one here. Newton has never really been a good fit for Kentucky’s offense and it’s become obvious that slamming a square peg through a round hole is not the answer. Instead of continuing to hope that the offense will eventually click, move to a spread, read-option based attack that will allow the offense to hide behind Newton’s legs and misdirection plays to halt attacking defenses. Or alternatively, focus on more three tight end sets and a power running game to mask weaknesses at receivers.
4. Get creative with your players. The tight ends aren’t catching the ball and you’ve already burned Darrian Miller’s redshirt. So play Miller as a tight end for the rest of the season now that Billy Joe Murphy is healthy again. Miller is one of the most athletic linemen I’ve seen at Kentucky and you could do worse. Try Lowery, Faulkner, Eric Dixon, or Daylen Hall at receiver. Again, their redshirts are all burned, so what do you have to lose? If they can catch and make a play with the ball in their hands, you’re immediately upgrading over what you have. Put Ray Sanders in the slot and get him the ball in some space. Do whatever it takes to make something happen.
5. Roll some heads. It’s a tried and true method for a coach to buy himself some time. Randy Sanders is responsible for the offense and his unit has been woeful. If he can’t figure out what it is going to take to move the ball, Joker will have to find someone who can. Steve Brown should have probably been let go last season and he might have the most unimpressive position group on the team. Most fans would accept the departures of both guys as a sign that Joker will not accept failure.
6. Remind the team that football is FUN. I cannot remember the last time a Kentucky team looked this uninspired and uninterested. If the players don’t even want to play, they’ve got no shot at winning.
Again, I don’t have all the answers and never claimed to. What I do know though, is that the football team is on a steep slope back to the basement of the SEC and the staff has the second half of this season to stop he slide. What Joker and company do over the next two weeks will ultimately decide the fate of the 2011 Wildcats and possibly the entire coaching staff, so they better do something.
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