Coach Mark Stoops begins his third season in Lexington with a new offensive coordinator. Shannon Dawson comes to town replacing Neal Brown who left to become the head coach at Troy. In Morgantown, Dawson’s Mountaineers ran up 500 yards per game and was 14th in the nation total yards.
Dawson is from the same “Air Raid” coaching tree as Brown but Cat fans are hoping for a lot more offense that what they saw in 2014. Kentucky ranked only 92nd in the nation in total yards and 12th out of 14 teams in the SEC.
Kentucky Wildcats Football Preview Part 1
Going into the fall Stoops has not named an “official” starting quarterback but the job is Patrick Towles’ to lose. In his first season as a starter Towles threw for 2,718 yards, 14 touchdowns and 9 interceptions. He also had 303 yards rushing and 6 touchdowns. He had 71 more rushing attempts than any other Wildcat. A fact that was not lost on UK Fans who never expected the quarterback to run the ball that much.
Reese Phillips was expected to be the back up in 2015 but a torn Achilles suffered before the start of practice will cost him most if not all of this season. Redshirt Freshmen Drew Barker will be Towles’ backup. Unfortunately for Barker he made more headlines for two off the field incidents than anything he did in practice.
Stanley “Boom” Williams will be the lead man in the backfield. He ran for 486 yards and 6 touchdownss. He has been hampered the last week with a sprained knee but Stoops says he will be ready for the start of the season. Mikel Horton and Jojo Kemp are more than capable backups to Williams.
On paper the Cats appear to be loaded at receiver. Junior Ryan Timmons lead the team in receptions and yards but played hurt last season and had off season surgery. Kentucky is also hoping from big things from Jeff Badet and Alex Montgomery, both of whom are returning after missing 2014 due to injures after playing as true freshmen. Garrett Johnson, Dorian Baker and Blake Bone all showed signs of becoming great players for Kentucky but need to find more consistency in 2015.
The tight end position has been a problem for Kentucky since the days of Jacob Tamme. Dawson is hoping true freshman CJ Conrad will finally be the answer. Conrad was rated as a four-star recruit out of LaGrange, Ohio. He had sports hernia surgery in the spring but says he is ready to go. No tight end has caught more than 18 passes in a season since Tamme graduated in 2007.
Up front the line will be headed by two juniors, center John Toth and tackle Jordan Swindle. The Cats finally have some depth at a position they have been lacking for some time.
The pieces are all there for Kentucky, it is just a matter of staying healthy and putting it all together. If it all comes together this will be a fun team to watch and one that could do some damage in the SEC.
Check back later for a look at the defense and special teams, as well as a prediction on the team’s outlook.
