In Year 2 of the revival of the Hal Mumme Air Raid offense and Year 1 of the Patrick Towles era at quarterback, the Kentucky Wildcats boasted the SEC’s 10th best offense in terms of yards per game.

This may not seem like much to boast about, until you consider Kentucky had the SEC’s 13th best offense the year before, it’s first using the Air Raid system since Mumme himself coached the Cats.

It’s likely the offense will produce even better results in 2015 — simply following the trend established the last two years tells us that as UK brings in more recruits suited for the system and grows more comfortable in the scheme it’s going to amass more yards and score more points.

Last season was a big step forward for Kentucky in its handling of the Air Raid. The Cats debuted four of their five top-100 wide receiver signees from their 2014 recruiting class, discovered a new star out of the backfield in Boom Williams and named Towles the starter and the proverbial face of the offense.

The improvements were modest, but the foundation laid was monumental. This fall — Mark Stoops’ third year at UK, the Cats third year in the Air Raid and Towles second year under center — the offense should be able to take the leap from work in progress to a productive system that will give SEC East foes a scare when drawing the often underwhelming Wildcats on the schedule.

There are many layers to how UK can turn the Air Raid into a success story in 2015. Let’s tackle them one at a time:

THE COORDINATOR — SHANNON DAWSON

The Cats hired Dawson in December after former OC Neal Brown left to take the head coaching job at Troy. Dawson was already working as an OC at West Virginia, but he was merely playing Robin to head coach Dana Holgorsen’s Batman in that Holgorson is already an offensive-minded coach who calls his own plays.

Now he’ll have the chance to call plays for himself in serving under Stoops, a defensive-minded head coach. Dawson’s familiarity with the Air Raid was a big reason he drew interest from UK. He learned the offense from Mumme, the same man who taught it to Brown while Brown played receiver at Kentucky under Mumme more than a decade ago.

So Dawson is able to take over an offense he’s already well-versed in, can continue coaching a system that’s already been spoon fed to the current UK roster for two years, and can finally call plays for himself to prove his worth as a coach in major college football. It’s a win-win for the coach and the Cats, and this harmonious relationship should keep the offense progressing despite the sudden coordinator change.

Dawson is also the coach given much of the credit for the development of three-star recruit Kevin White into a Biletnikoff Award finalist this year and a touted NFL Draft prospect. If he can work similar wonders with UK’s bevy of young, talented wideouts, the offense shouldn’t struggle to move the ball through the air.

THE QUARTERBACK — TOWLES

Towles is a big, sturdy quarterback with a strong arm who can make almost every throw from the pocket and can escape pressure when needed. He’s a great fit to engineer the Air Raid, and with a year of experience under his belt the hope is that Towles is in line for a breakout season in 2015.

He threw for more than 2,700 yards last year and threw 14 touchdowns against nine interceptions, but left plenty of room for improvement. He could stand to run through his progressions faster from the pocket, and he certainly needs to start getting the ball out of his hands quicker in situations where his first read is covered up.

The Air Raid often presents defenses with a number of targets to track on the outside, but it can be just as difficult for the quarterback to track all those targets on a given play with a live pass rush heading right for them.

Dawson’s familiarity with the system should allow he and Towles to work through some of these kinks this spring and again in fall camp. It’s not necessarily about simplifying the offense, but about helping Towles feel more comfortable in the pocket and perhaps tweaking certain plays to give the rising redshirt junior a safety valve he knows he’ll have before the ball is even snapped.

Towles will also grow more intelligent from under center, and his own work on the field and in the film room this offseason should allow him to see the field better. Seven of his nine picks came in SEC play, and UK will play seven of its eight SEC opponents from 2014 again in 2015, meaning Towles should be able to learn from his mistakes last season against familiar defenses.

THE BACKFIELD — BOOM AND CO.

It’s strange to consider that a tailback may serve as the linchpin in an Air Raid offense, but Williams will serve that very role when UK kicks off its 2015 season this fall.

The Cats star tailback broke out as a freshman last season, posting multiple 100-yard performances in addition to some thrilling individual efforts involving his supreme athleticism, speed and shiftiness.

Williams can run between the tackles and on the outside, and he can catch passes and make plays out of nothing by simply having the ball in space. He can line up anywhere within the offense and presents a looming home run threat to opposing defenses just by lining up in the formation.

So as strange as it sounds, Williams having a big season in 2015 and avoiding a sophomore slump could do wonders for the UK passing game, even though Williams will likely catch fewer than 20 passes all of next season.

Joining Williams in Kentucky’s stable of backs are fellow rising sophomore Mikel Horton and rising junior Jojo Kemp. Horton was a relatively unknown asset buried on the depth chart at the start of last season, but showed as much consistency as any other back on the team in the way he carried the ball.

Kemp is the team’s Wildcat quarterback, or at least he was until he finally attempted a pass last season (it might have been the ugliest pass thrown by any SEC player all season). Teams stopped respecting the threat that he’d throw it again, and it more or less killed that wrinkle in the offense.

Nevertheless, Kemp is a versatile runner with speed to burn and an ability to power for yards between the tackles that his 5-foot-10, 195-pound frame doesn’t inherently give away.

Both Kemp and Horton will add depth to the running game, and although UK is likely to throw more in 2015 than it did last year, having a consistent rushing attack with a variety of different runners will at least add dimension to a pass-heavy offense.

THE WIDEOUTS — TIMMONS AND CO.

Of course, in order to operate an effective Air Raid offense you must have a collection of capable wideouts. And although Kentucky’s pass catchers are still measured in upside rather than achievements, the Cats do indeed have the receivers to turn the Air Raid into a success.

Rising junior Ryan Timmons is the team’s top returning receiver, and the only player on the roster with more than 22 career catches (he has 77 in two seasons). He’s not big, but he does possess SEC speed and an ability to make plays in a number of ways. Timmons is a player UK will use in the slot and on the outside, and he’s the kind of guy who’s just as dangerous on a reverse as he is running a fly route. He has speed and simply knows how to make plays when the ball is in his hands.

As far as No. 1’s go in the SEC he may not crack the top 10, but he’s the kind of playmaker UK needs somewhere on the field as often as possible.

Four of UK’s five touted 2014 receiver signees played as true freshmen last season: Dorian Baker, Blake Bone, Garrett Johnson and T.V. Williams.

Bone and Baker both stand 6-foot-3 or taller and are long striders with big frames who can dominate on the outside if the ball comes their way often enough. Both players showed flashes on the outside a year ago, but both are still learning to create separation in ways other than simply being bigger and faster (traits relied on all too often by star high school wideouts).

Johnson and Williams are both smaller, quicker players like Timmons, and Johnson may be the furthest along of the bunch, as indicated by his 22 catches to lead the four freshmen.

All four players are at least acclimated to the speed of the SEC, and when you lump Timmons into the mix all five guys have spent at least some time developing timing with Towles. If these wideouts put in the work this offseason to improve that timing, it will benefit the passing game ten-fold no matter how opposing defenses alter their approach to slowing the Air Raid this fall.

The wild card of the bunch is redshirt freshman Thaddeus Snodgrass, who not only has one of the best names in football but was also the most highly touted of UK’s 2014 wideout signees. He redshirted last season and is now as acclimated to the speed of the game at the college level, but he may begin his career more game-ready than the other four as well.

Should Snodgrass translate his 6-foot-1 frame and excellent speed to the field effectively, it will only give opposing secondaries another threat to monitor when facing UK. The abilities of the wideouts are crucial, but not as crucial as their timing with Towles and the depth presented at the position.

THE TIGHT END — C.J. CONRAD

One thing Kentucky’s Air Raid has lacked the last two seasons is an effective pass-catching threat at the tight end position. The hope is that 2015 four-star signee C.J. Conrad, one of just two four-stars in this year’s class, will help fill that void going forward.

Because Kentucky is so much better running the ball than many other pass-heavy offenses, Conrad can be used in a variety of ways as both a blocker and receiver that ought to give opponents fits. If he can present a consistent threat across the middle coming out of a run-blocking stance, UK all of a sudden has a more dangerous play-action offense than it’s had the last two years.

If he can line up in the slot or on the outside and force a linebacker out of position and into coverage, suddenly the passing game is controlling the action, not the defense.

Tight ends were relatively quiet throughout the SEC last season, and Conrad is only a freshman and may need some seasoning before reaching his full potential. But if he can step in and at least hold his own as both a receiver and a blocker, Kentucky’s offense immediately benefits.

THE LINE — MISSING DARRIAN MILLER

The biggest weakness Kentucky must endure on offense this fall is its offensive line. The Cats’ line allowed the second-most sacks and fourth-most tackles for loss of any team in the SEC last season, and it has since lost four-year starting left tackle Darrian Miller.

The line committed far too many penalties, many of which were pre-snap, procedural penalties (Big Blue Nation is looking at you, Jordan Swindle), and losing the most consistent veteran on the line playing the most important position on the line isn’t going to benefit the unit at all.

Reinforcements should be coming for the Cats in 2016, as UK has two of the commonwealth of Kentucky’s top 10 high school talents signed to its 2016 class. Both players play on the offensive line, and if the Wildcats can maintain those commitments they’ll begin complementing all their emerging talent at the skill positions with sturdier protection up front.

Until then, UK will have to deal with a shaky line that may undo the entire offense if it struggles enough.

Luckily for UK, many of its returning linemen were sophomores or younger, so the line possesses as much upside as the rest of the offense, and that upside may just turn into production this season. The Cats must find a new left tackle, perhaps Kyle Meadows, and the unit must provide better pass protection for Towles to feel more comfortable and develop better rapport with his pass-catchers.

The line should have chemistry this year with most pieces returning other than Miller, and that chemistry might make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. UK doesn’t need to boast the best line in the SEC, just a capable line that allows most plays to develop.

If UK can do that — simply be a middle-of-the-pack line — then UK has all the pieces in place for an offensive eruption in 2015.