It doesn't take a football-obsessed analytics nerd to see that the Kentucky Wildcats are a bad offensive team. Any casual football fan watching them play could see how inept they are as an offensive unit. Therefore, you probably won't be shocked by actually how bad it has been this season. They rank among the league's worst in almost all statistical offensive categories.
Out of the 133 FBS teams in the NCAA.com database, Kentucky is not higher than 70 in any offense statistical category. And in most, they are worse than 90th. This is in a list of 10 offensive categories, and they are in the bottom tier in nearly all of them. Some of these stats are in the actual bottom 20 in the nation. It's that bad.
This is considering the full 10 games worth of data, too, which includes big offensive games over lesser opponents like Southern Miss, Ohio, and Murray State. The stats would be far worse without these games included, and that feels astonishing.
The worst offenders are in the passing game. They rank 125th in completion percentage at 54.8%. The Wildcats are 116th in passing offense efficiency and 114th in passing offense at only 183.4 yards per game.
However, the rushing game isn't that much better, as they rank 71st in overall rushing offense and 72nd in first-down offense. This is mediocre at best, and truly, these are the two best offensive statistical categories for Kentucky: 71st and 72nd in the nation. Yikes.
When it comes to scoring, the Wildcats ranked 109th in scoring offense and 80th in red zone offense. The red zone gets a bump because of Alex Raynor's 18 consecutive field goals dating back to last season. Without him, Kentucky would be worse in this category, too.
The other three categories that were considered were 3rd and 4th down conversion percentages, which were 96th at 37.4% and 109th at 42.9%. The final category also measures the defense, but it's team total penalties, and they rank 86th in the nation in penalties per game at 6.5. They are among the most penalized teams, or maybe better stated, undisciplined teams.
This is a huge indictment of the year and, honestly, of the coaching staff. These stats are bad, and it was supposed to be so much better this year with new offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan and 5-star transfer Brock Vandagriff, but it's been worse. The chances of any of these improving in the final two games against Texas and Louisville are low, and Kentucky could finish the year with one of the absolute worst offenses in the nation.