The Kentucky Wildcats have been one of the surprise teams of the young college football season. UK is 4-0, with upset wins already at Florida and against Mississippi State.
How Kentucky’s physical (and explosive) run game works
The Wildcats are springing runners to go the distance.
Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Kentucky is playing excellent defense — seventh best nationally, according to Bill Connelly’s S&P+. But when I began to watch Kentucky to see how it is winning games, I was most impressed with its offensive line.
Kentucky is 37th in rushing efficiency and 13th in rushing explosiveness. It is 90th in passing efficiency and 77th in passing explosiveness. The Wildcats are making a living almost exclusively on the ground, thanks to a front that rarely allows penetration, a top running back in Benny Snell, and a quarterback in Terry Wilson, who is himself an elite runner.
Against Florida, Kentucky had runs of 44, 31, 24, and 20 yards, plus five more of 10-plus. Of course, Florida’s run defense hasn’t been good for several years now.
Mississippi State, on the other hand, has a top-notch defensive line. And the Wildcats put up nine runs of 10 or more yards on the Bulldogs. Kentucky had 47 runs and only 14 passes against Mississippi State. Against Florida, it was a 41-17 ratio.
Let’s take a look at how UK is creating these explosive runs.
Kentucky will block you.
Here, Snell busts out for an explosive run. Kentucky is running a zone read, so QB Wilson is reading the backside defender, in this case a defensive end, No. 9:
No. 9 sits to seal an outside run for the QB, so Wilson correctly gives the ball to Snell. The RB is a patient runner and waits for his blocks to develop ever so slightly.
And boy do they develop. The center and right guard Bunchy Stallings do a great job of working in tandem to get movement on the 1-technique defensive tackle (No.94) with a double team, and then Stallings gets a piece of the linebacker (No.40) to spring Snell.
Right tackle George Asafo-Adjei also does a good job to step flat and drive the 4-technique down lineman (No. 95), not allowing penetration. He keeps his feet moving enough to give Snell the crease.
The Wildcats’ wildcat is wildly effective.
Here, Kentucky is in a standard wildcat look. RB Snell is receiving the snap. But look at who is running the jet action. It’s Wilson, the QB! You don’t see many QBs act as the jet motion man in wildcat (or any) packages. But Wilson has the speed to play receiver in the SEC if he’d wanted to, so defenses must respect him as the motion man.
In this case, it’s just window dressing. Kentucky is running split zone. The blitzing nickel safety and defensive end react to the jet motion and take a wide path. They are quickly washed to the outside by right guard Stallings and right tackle Asafo-Adjei.
But what makes this play, again, is the double-team by center Drake Jackson and backside guard Logan Sternberg. They get instant movement on the nose guard, and Jackson is able to react quickly enough to neutralize the linebacker filling, even though he got pushed back. Snell keeps a good angle and knows when to push the pedal to the floor.
Plus, I have to think Kentucky has a pass it can run with Wilson throwing out of the wildcat after getting the ball on the jet motion. That could be fun.
Wilson, the QB, goes the distance with his legs.
There are QBs who can hurt a defense with their mobility. And then there are QBs who can go 50-plus yards if they get a crease. Wilson is the latter.
Here, Kentucky is running QB power with what I think is a fake QB toss, though it could be an actual read (without knowing Kentucky’s play call, I can’t be sure). The QB and RB action help to influence the defensive end and linebackers, who step out, so if it is a read, Wilson made the right one. The receivers are in a tight set and influence the flow as well.
Left tackle E.J. Price and left guard Sternberg quickly wash the 5-technique defensive end with a combo down block, and Price climbs to wash a linebacker. Right guard Stallings, who’s pulling to the left, gets a piece of the linebacker on his way.
And Wilson’s vision and burst here are great. Most teams won’t run this often, but Kentucky can create explosive runs with its QB. This play went for a touchdown.
Even if it never gets the passing game going, UK could win nine games.
Kentucky has not had to play from a huge deficit this year. If it faces a team that can get ahead and make it throw, neutralizing the run threats, the Wildcats are likely to struggle.
But who on this schedule has the ability to do that? Georgia, to be sure. But aside from that, there’s not a team on this schedule the Wildcats cannot beat.
If Kentucky’s passing game can evolve just a bit, it’s quite possible that it could go 5-3 in this stretch: at South Carolina, at Texas A&M, vs. Vanderbilt, at Missouri, vs. Georgia, at Tennessee, vs. Middle Tennessee, and at Louisville. (That might be conservative, but I think teams will make some adjustments to counter Kentucky.)
A finish like that would give Mark Stoops his best season as a head coach.
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