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Kentucky Wildcats

Updating Kentucky camp to-do list: What’s solved, what’s left before opener

Joe Cox

By Joe Cox

Published:


With the regular season approaching quickly, Kentucky is still refining some of its personnel choices at key positions and working to build depth while determining which freshmen will redshirt and which will play.

Most of the remaining issues revolve around depth and battles for starting spots, while the big picture is growing increasingly settled ahead of the Sept. 3 opener against Southern Miss. Let’s break down the big picture from Lexington.

What’s Been Solved

1. The quarterback situation: Simply put, Drew Barker has gone from having a lock on the starting QB job to having an absolute stranglehold on it. The highly touted sophomore has been solid throughout drills, impressing coaches with his maturity and his accuracy.

While it’s anybody’s guess how these weekday results will translate into Saturday success, Barker has apparently made great strides as the projected starter. Backup Stephen Johnson has had some accuracy issues, but still might well see the field in a dual threat goal-line type package.

The Kentucky defensive staff raves about finally having a running QB to prep against, so if nothing else, Johnson will positively impact the Wildcats in that regard.

2. The running back rotation: It will probably be until Week 1 for it to be unveiled, but the word around the campfire is that the UK coaches are very happy with their running backs.

Stanley “Boom” Williams has been held out of most contact work because of prior injuries, but with senior Jojo Kemp running well and freshmen Benny Snell and A.J. Rose both impressing coaches, minor injury to Mikal Horton and a few days off practice for Siheim King due to a death in his family haven’t slowed things at all.

Kentucky had a ton of talent in the backfield in 2015 but failed to use it to full advantage. Don’t look for the same mistake this time around.

3. Linebacker depth: Kentucky went into camp with multiple questions in their front seven, but glowing reports for a couple of young linebackers suggest improvement on that front.

Sophomore Kobie Walker and redshirt freshman Eli Brown have apparently impressed defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot, and both are talented enough athletes to hopefully offset a loss of experience at that position.

Veteran transfers Courtney Love and De’Niro Laster have both also performed well, and seem likely to help the talented young players harness their enthusiasm within the context of Eliot’s defensive schemes.

What are the Lingering Issues?

1. Defensive line depth: The line was UK’s biggest camp concern. The question mark added an exclamation mark when Stoops told reporters that veteran tackle Regie Meant likely that he will miss the season dealing with a personal issue.

“It is a blow to us and our depth on the d-line,” Stoops said. “But other guys will step up and we’ll continue to do that.”

UK is stuck relying on the underachieving Matt Elam and a group of mostly unknown young players. While positive reports on Courtney Miggins have surfaced, this is still the biggest issue for UK to solve in the next couple of weeks. Look for freshmen T.J. Carter, Ja’Quize Cross, and Kordell Looney to get a long look at possibly playing right away.

2. Offensive line starters: Kentucky lost very little talent off its offensive line, but at last note, was still preparing to enter the season with former walk-on tackle Cole Mosier starting.

JUCO Tate Leavitt has been somewhat underwhelming, and true freshman Landon Young is definitely UK’s future, but he might also be the team’s present best answer at tackle. The matter is somewhat complicated as veterans like Logan Stenberg and Jervontius “Bunchy” Stallings have played well, and could make the starting line a tough call until game time against Southern Miss.

3. Can Kentucky shake off a bad break? After the past two seasons, few doubt Stoops’ ability to get UK off to a good start. But after a 5-1 start in 2014 and a 4-1 opening to 2015, UK has gone 1-12 on the back ends of those two seasons.

Can Kentucky rebound quicker and more efficiently than they have shown in the past? Frankly, their ability to reach a bowl game — and perhaps extend Stoops’s job — depends on the answer being “yes.”

A renewed sense of offensive identity under Eddie Gran and a tough secondary both provide reason for optimism. But optimism will be answered only when and if UK plays much better down the late-season stretch in 2016 than it has in the past two seasons.

Joe Cox

Joe Cox is a columnist for Saturday Down South. He has also written or assisted in writing five books, and his most recent, Almost Perfect (a study of baseball pitchers’ near-miss attempts at perfect games), is available on Amazon or at many local bookstores.

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