After an ugly season-opening win, Bush Hamdan's offensive struggles are a familiar, painful story for Big Blue Nation.
Well, after one week, fans aren't happy with the way the team looks. Following a record-low passing output and a putrid offensive performance saved by a single 79-yard run, the Cats were left reeling after being outgained by Toledo at home. That style of offense will not work in the SEC. Bush Hamdan after the game said. “We feel about the same as you guys feel...I’m not going to sit here and say anything differently.” BBN won't either Bush.
Some fans are holding out hope that this was more of a test run, a game where the staff refused to put too much on tape for Ole Miss or future opponents. The "do just enough to win" theory. Well, that line of thinking is just wrong, and I can tell you why.
We have seen 13 games of Bush Hamdan's offense, and as the late, great Dennis Green once said, "They are who we thought they were!" This isn't an anomaly; it's a pattern. Look at the point output for Hamdan's Kentucky offense against Power 5 schools:
- 6 vs. South Carolina
- 12 vs. Georgia
- 20 vs. Ole Miss
- 13 vs. Vanderbilt
- 20 vs. Florida
- 10 vs. Auburn
- 18 vs. Tennessee
- 14 vs. Texas
- 14 vs. Louisville
That, my friends, is a pattern of bad offense, averaging a measly 14.1 points per game against legitimate competition. This isn't just a slow start; it's a continuation of a deeply troubling trend. This track record is precisely why he was fired as the offensive coordinator at Washington in 2019. Fans grew tired of him as they struggled to match expectations with a Georgia transfer quarterback, sound familiar? When the competition got tougher, his play-calling became predictable and ineffective.
Now, you include the "gimme" games, and things look a bit better: 31 against Southern Miss, 41 against Ohio, 48 against Murray State, and now 24 against Toledo. But those teams are only going to account for two games a year going forward as the SEC moves to a nine-game conference schedule.
This means Mark Stoops will finally have to beat teams with equal or more talent, something he has struggled with, going 3-34 against teams that finished the year with a winning SEC record. For all the talk from Hamdan about being frustrated and disappointed, the truth is that Kentucky fans are experiencing that feeling at ten times the intensity. Big Blue Nation has seen this movie before, and they know exactly how it ends. It's not pretty.
Drew Holbrook is an avid Kentucky fan who has been covering the Cats for over 10 years. In his free time, he spends time with his family, and watching Premier League soccer. 1 Corinthians 13. #UpTheAlbion