Kentucky Wildcats recruit Malik Newman drops 50

Mandatory Credit: Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports

Now that the West Virginia football season is officially over, new Kentucky Wildcats offensive coordinator can turn his focus to his new gig. Looking at the history of the Shannon Dawson offenses, it looks as if it has evolved from a pass happy offense that threw 80% of the time to a more balanced approach. That said, expect lots of downfield passing.

"In Dawson’s pass happy scheme, Moses went on to set conference career records for completions (1,184), passing yards (13,401), total offense (13,201) and touchdown passes (121). But Kentucky’s quarterbacks don’t necessarily need to worry about their arms going numb from overuse. The Dawson offense, much like the Air Raid offense from which it’s rooted, has evolved since 2008. Much of Dawson’s balance has come from Holgorsen, who learned the Air Raid system under former Kentucky coach Hal Mumme. “Different people through this tree take it and tweak it in different ways and use their little change– ups,” UK Coach Mark Stoops said of his new offensive coordinator. “What I love about Shannon and what I think him and Dana have done at West Virginia is they’ve really run the ball very well and have some physicality about them,” Stoops continued, “but still are throwing the heck out of the ball and still very creative with the way they’re doing things.” Of West Virginia’s 1,020 plays in the regular season, 52 percent of them were on the ground. It’s quite a flip flop from Dawson’s days running the offense at Stephen F. Austin when the Lumberjacks ran the ball just 33.8 percent of the time."

Despite saying he is firmly committed to the Vanderbilt Commodores, 2015 LB Josh Smith’s actions say otherwise. The Kentucky Wildcats are still in the hunt for the four star linebacker, but other big fish are on the verge of getting involved.

"Currently Smith only knows of two official visits that are locked in: Vanderbilt on Jan. 31 and Oklahoma on the weekend of Jan. 16. He’s already taken one to Kentucky. “They came and they were straight forward with me,” he said. “I talked to Coach (Tim) Kish, the linebacker coach. I sat down and asked him what position they want me as and he said middle linebacker. There depth chart situation is they’re losing some so they need some players. He shot it straight forward with me and I can see myself possibly playing for this coach. I liked the type of person he was and how he spoke. He kind of set it off the right way so I honestly wanted to give him a chance.” The other pool of programs from which Smith will schedule two more official visits consists of Ole Miss, Cal, Georgia and Georgia Tech. But two new candidates emerged recently: LSU and Florida. While neither has offered, both programs have indicated that an offer could be coming soon and they’d like for him to get on campus for an official visit. If an did come from either program, it would definitely have an impact."