Air raid? The depressing stat that shows how much Kentucky has struggled offensively under Mark Stoops

Since Mark Stoops took over as head coach in 2013, Kentucky has carved out a reputation as a gritty, defense-oriented program. They have also become noted as an inept one-dimensional offense. Despite this success of two 10-win seasons (1 was later vacated), Kentucky football stands out for an unusual and embarrassing reason stat.

Kentucky is the only team in the SEC that hasn't had a quarterback surpass 3,000 passing yards in a single season during Stoops's tenure. In fact, most SEC teams have hit this milestone multiple times in that time period.

Kentucky has had six offensive coordinators under Mark Stoops, including Liam Coen, Eddie Gran, Shannon Dawson, Neal Brown, Rich Scangarello, and, currently, Bush Hamdan. Although these coordinators brought varying philosophies and styles of their own, Kentucky’s offense has looked largely the same following Shannon Dawson's firing.

Slow, ground, and pound, snap the ball at 2 seconds on the play clock, cloud of dust football. This rotation of offensive coaches hasn’t helped create any stability at all. In fact, it has been 5 different offensive hires in the last 6 years, with Coen coming in twice. No quarterback development and bad recruiting choices have left Mark Stoops scratching their head on what to do next.

Meanwhile, other SEC teams have regularly fielded quarterbacks who reach or exceed 3,000 yards.
SEC 3000-yard passers per school since Stoops was hired:
Alabama-7
Arkansas-3
Auburn-1
Florida-1
Georgia-4
Kentucky-0
LSU-3
Ole Miss-7
Miss St-4
Missouri- 4
South Carolina- 4
Tennessee-2
Vanderbilt-1

(Texas and Oklahoma joined just this year)

Kentucky has, under Stoops, historically leaned on its running game and defense to keep them in games, much to the frustration of fans who felt they were rarely playing for the win, just playing not to lose or be blown out.

Even with promising talents over the years like current quarterback Devin Leary and Will Levis, high profile recruits like Drew Barker, Patrick Towles, and others, the Wildcats have never broken the 3,000-yard threshold(Levis has 2,827 one year and Leary 2746). The focus on a physical, ground-based approach under Stoops has contributed to the team’s consistency but limited its ceiling in the passing game and ability to punch above their weight, with teams finishing above .500.

This season, all eyes were on Bush Hamdan, who promised a no-huddle, more up-tempo style, allowing playmakers to get in space. And instead:

Is there much more to say than this?

With the varied coaches and the revolving door of offensive coordinators, two things have remained the same: Mark Stoops and the inept passing offense.