Have a day, Ray Davis. After watching the EKU tape I wrote that he may actually even be an upgrade at running back and I'm still wondering. C Rod was so elite at efficiency, but Davis brings so much to the table and on top of that proved at Vandy he can carry it 25 times a game if needed. He was special tonight. Took a lackluster performance by Kentucky and blew it open.
For the first time this year Kentucky got off to a fast, great start. Marched right down the field for a touchdown. Leary was precise. The defense got off the field quickly. That was something everyone wanted to see and was new for 2023. Then after a three and out special teams got into the mix with Zion Childress falling on a muffed punt. Then things slowed down very quickly. We should point out that the long play for Dingle could have easily been a touchdown and it went for nothing. They had the long Brown-Stephens touchdown called back. Lots of missed opportunities, mental miscues, and little issues that derailed UK.
I have some real concerns about the offense from how long it's taking to line up to the blocking up front and a couple of the receivers you expected to be good not playing very well. But the potential is still there if they can make improvements in a couple of areas.
The defense had a very solid night. Akron isn't good at all and they were able to at least operate with some efficiency at times but the overall numbers are perfectly acceptable.
Have felt that Devin Leary, Ray Davis, and Tayvion Robinson are basically carrying the offense. Taking too long to get plays off, not able to establish the run game, too many issues with the offensive line. I've talked about long-simmering OL issues (recruiting, evaluation, development, playing guys to develop them, etc) for a long time and you can tell they just are not good enough up front in my opinion. But that trio I mentioned have been really good. Absolutely phenomenal play by Leary avoiding the sack and dumping it off for Ray Davis to cut across the field and score.
If you take the -21 yard play out Kentucky actually averaged 7.5 yards per carry tonight but I think the run game and o-line definitely still have some questions to answer.
We're seeing that because of the way Kentucky schedules we just don't know as much about the Cats as we do a lot of other teams out there. One thing I'm confident of is the offensive line needs to be better in the SEC for this season to go somewhere.
All in all, another game that doesn't tell us a whole lot about how SEC play is going to go. League looks very down but Kentucky has left a lot on the table and in those SEC games you can just imagine they're going to have to play a lot cleaner.
For the first time this year Kentucky got off to a fast, great start. Marched right down the field for a touchdown. Leary was precise. The defense got off the field quickly. That was something everyone wanted to see and was new for 2023. Then after a three and out special teams got into the mix with Zion Childress falling on a muffed punt. Then things slowed down very quickly. We should point out that the long play for Dingle could have easily been a touchdown and it went for nothing. They had the long Brown-Stephens touchdown called back. Lots of missed opportunities, mental miscues, and little issues that derailed UK.
I have some real concerns about the offense from how long it's taking to line up to the blocking up front and a couple of the receivers you expected to be good not playing very well. But the potential is still there if they can make improvements in a couple of areas.
The defense had a very solid night. Akron isn't good at all and they were able to at least operate with some efficiency at times but the overall numbers are perfectly acceptable.
Have felt that Devin Leary, Ray Davis, and Tayvion Robinson are basically carrying the offense. Taking too long to get plays off, not able to establish the run game, too many issues with the offensive line. I've talked about long-simmering OL issues (recruiting, evaluation, development, playing guys to develop them, etc) for a long time and you can tell they just are not good enough up front in my opinion. But that trio I mentioned have been really good. Absolutely phenomenal play by Leary avoiding the sack and dumping it off for Ray Davis to cut across the field and score.
If you take the -21 yard play out Kentucky actually averaged 7.5 yards per carry tonight but I think the run game and o-line definitely still have some questions to answer.
We're seeing that because of the way Kentucky schedules we just don't know as much about the Cats as we do a lot of other teams out there. One thing I'm confident of is the offensive line needs to be better in the SEC for this season to go somewhere.
All in all, another game that doesn't tell us a whole lot about how SEC play is going to go. League looks very down but Kentucky has left a lot on the table and in those SEC games you can just imagine they're going to have to play a lot cleaner.
