CatsIllustrated – Rowland: How I’ll judge Kentucky football in 2023

Georgia’s historic 65-7 blowout victory in opposition to TCU in final evening’s nationwide championship was a sobering reminder that on the planet of faculty soccer haves and have nots, the interior circle is lots smaller than nearly anybody wish to settle for.

Possibly I tend to make broad stroke judgements primarily based on expertise, however nothing suggests to me that the game’s interior circle goes to be widening any time quickly.

It is potential for a program to stretch and get to a championship stage, or a close to championship stage, underneath the correct situations. TCU was ok to beat Michigan. Oregon’s rise in fashionable instances has introduced the Geese near a championship. Clemson was extra recognized for Clemsoning than successful titles earlier than Dabo Swinney received there.

However proper now, the game is large enough for championships to cycle by solely a small handful of coaches at a small handful of packages. Most of these nationwide championship-capable packages are within the SEC. There could also be some years when the Huge Ten can rival the SEC when it comes to prime to backside respectability, however the truth that the SEC has upwards of six or seven packages that you could possibly think about stretching for title rivalry any given 12 months makes it very totally different than the Huge Ten, from which solely Ohio State seems able to elevating to that stage any given 12 months.

Kentucky has had the unhealthy fortune of taking part in an SEC schedule however the luck of competing within the East. That is not luck going ahead, with Georgia the clear prime Dawgs within the sport and Tennessee coming off an 11-win season punctuated in grand model in opposition to Clemson in a New Years Six bowl.

The Wildcats tackle Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee subsequent season. Faculty soccer pundits throughout the nation will instantly assume that the Wildcats might be 0-3 in these video games. Throw in a recreation on the highway in opposition to SEC West – the form of recreation that has not gone properly for Mark Stoops – and loads of of us will most likely rightfully marvel concerning the margin for error subsequent season.

I am truly of the thoughts that it isn’t unattainable that Kentucky may make issues attention-grabbing in opposition to Alabama and/or Tennessee in Lexington. In the event you doubt that, simply have a look at Alabama’s final two years price of SEC outcomes. It isn’t unusual for even common groups to have a punchers probability later within the recreation. Arkansas completed the season 6-6 and had the Tide on the ropes within the second half in Fayetteville earlier this season, and one has to imagine that Kentucky will not less than be aggressive in opposition to the Vols at residence, even when the ‘Cats would be the underdog.

The underside line is that subsequent 12 months’s Kentucky schedule could be very tough. I am not going to have the ability to speak myself or lots of you into calling the Wildcats a “darkhorse” in an East with these two packages, and Georgia specifically proper now. Final evening’s reminiscence is simply too contemporary, and an entire lifetime of faculty soccer viewing would not change that first evaluation.

However subsequent 12 months is de facto huge for Kentucky soccer and for Mark Stoops.

There is not any speak of the recent seat, nor ought to there be. Regardless of a disappointing season, Stoops’ seat must be very cool.

I will decide subsequent season primarily based on how the Wildcats fare in a single specific space: Can Mark Stoops start to transition to extra of an attacking model on offense?

To ensure that Kentucky to interrupt by to a different stage, that has to occur.

We will not neglect about what an enormous achievement it has been for Stoops and Firm to construct what they have going. Kentucky has quietly developed into one of many extra constantly strong soccer packages on the Energy 5 stage, and even within the East, within the SEC that is an enormous deal. Even in a 12 months when the offensive line struggled as a lot as nearly some other on the market, the Wildcats managed seven wins and the correct aspect of the W/L ledger.

However within the huge image, Kentucky has to transition, offensively, to a group that may put a protection on its heels and hold it there.

That does not imply Stoops has to get away from his choice for enjoying conservative with a cushty lead, however it means he must deliver the offense to some extent the place it is harmful sufficient and explosive sufficient to make actually good groups sweat a bit of extra.

Do not take that as a knock, as a result of Stoops has defeated some actually good groups already. He beat top-10 Louisville, Penn State, an Iowa group that received its division, a stout Mississippi State squad in 2018, and a New Years Six bowl participant at Florida, within the Swamp no much less.

Kentucky’s method of energy soccer and ball management gave method a bit of bit this 12 months as personnel realities modified what the Cats have been capable of do to opponents. Subsequent 12 months there is no such thing as a Chris Rodriguez and the road will nonetheless be a query going into the 12 months. There is not going to be the identical bodily id within the run recreation that we have grown accustomed to seeing from a program that has been spoiled by seven or eight years of fantastic operating again play, and bruising success at that.

Subsequent 12 months it is the Devin Leary, Barion Brown, Dane Key, and Tayvion Robinson present on offense. Assuming Liam Coen returns because the offensive coordinator, and it looks as if it is only a matter of time till that announcement, this system must win video games in another way on offense.

Extra passing. Extra downfield passing. Extra giving receivers an opportunity to make the contested 50-50 performs that come from extra all or nothing, full pace forward offense.

Kentucky would not should be as extensive open as TCU or Tennessee. Coaches can win in very alternative ways.

However this must be the 12 months that we begin to speak concerning the evolution of Stoops’ program on the offensive aspect of the ball.

There might be loads of alternatives for marquee, nation-shocking wins subsequent 12 months. A type of is likely to be price an entire bunch of wins in opposition to middling opponents so far as the nation and notion is worried. The Louisville recreation goes to be crucial due to notion with Jeff Brohm coming in. Lose to Vanderbilt and/or Missouri for a second straight 12 months in opposition to that schedule and there might be some gripes.

However within the huge image, I am much less inquisitive about whether or not Kentucky finishes 6-6 or 7-5 or 8-4 and extra inquisitive about what the offense seems to be like transferring ahead.

Kentucky has a protection that may maintain a two-time nationwide champ to 16 factors. That is one 12 months faraway from the Cats taking part in Georgia as powerful as nearly some other group, as they did in Athens in 2021. And it looks as if so long as Brad White is coordinating the protection, the personnel is already ok to proceed at just about the identical tempo on that aspect of the ball. That is not the place the numerous tweaks are going to be.

An enormous a part of Nick Saban evolving to proceed to compete for championships lately has been opening up the offense. Georgia continues to be extra energy, however the capability to assault, press the ball down the sector, and stretch a protection with huge play capability that hits you all recreation lengthy is a vital ingredient to Mark Stoops getting Kentucky to a different stage. He is broke by a number of plateaus earlier than and that is simply the subsequent.