Kentucky Wildcats Football Practice Notebook: Sept. 5

Cats addressing fundamental issues that slowed offensive production in season opener against Southern Miss.

Chuck Cook/USA Today

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- The biggest question that emerged from Kentucky's 24-17 win over Southern Miss in last week's season opener surrounded a lack of productivity from the unit most considered to be the Wildcats' strength entering 2017.

On Tuesday, UK offensive coordinator Eddie Gran discussed some of the issues that led to the Cats posting only 254 yards of total offense and two touchdowns in the victory.

"Techniques and fundamentals weren't the greatest," Gran said after Tuesday's practice at the Joe Craft Football Training Center. "Our operation... usually from Game 1 to Game 2, it gets better."

Asked to elaborate on his "operation" term, Gran said: "Get up, get down, get set. Make the calls and let's go. Too much talking. There's going to be times when we don't have the perfect play. Let's just get on a body and let's go. That's going to come with time."

An "easy fix," Gran added. "From what they saw on film and what they did today, I think that will be corrected."

Kentucky entered the opener having to replace graduated center Jon Toth and injured offensive tackle Cole Mosier along the line. If that was not challenging enough, the Cats also saw new center Bunchy Stallings go down with a injury early in the game. That meant some shuffling that may have led to communication issues.

UK linemen Nick Haynes and Logan Stenberg both suggested they may have just been too amped to hit someone in a different uniform after six weeks of preseason practice.

"You could see that guys were playing really physical and straining and playing really hard," said Haynes, who had to shift from guard to center after Stallings went down. "That's good to see... but you can have 18 knockdowns, but if we don't get any yards, it doesn't really matter."

"I think the first game of the year, especially as an O-Lineman, you just want to come off the ball and smack somebody around," added Stenberg, who had nine knockdown blocks on film review. "Sometimes the technique can go out the window, and you don't want that to happen. Today was about getting back to technique and fundamentals."

The Cats' running game, which was held to only 78 net yards and a paltry 2.2 yards per carry, suffered from impatience. Sophomore running back Benny Snell Jr. was a prime culprit, UK head coach Mark Stoops indicated on Monday.

"It was two-fold," Gran said. "A couple of times we went the wrong way, schematically, and we had guys come free, and therefore (Snell) had to be impatient and just go. Then, when we got it right, he was impatient. He saw that on film. He had a great day of being technique sound today. He really, really worked on it. I don't foresee it happening anymore."

The UK offensive chief also acknowledged that he may have gotten a bit stubborn with trying to run the "Wildcat" formation when it was largely ineffective in the opener.

"I could have opened it up a little bit more," he said. "... But we won the game, period, the end. That's a great road win for us."

NOTES:

* Gran said UK quarterback Stephen Johnson had an "efficient" game, going 11-of-20 for 176 yards and a touchdown with no turnovers, but missed on some third-down throws that could have drastically changed the tone of the game. One of them, an overthrown crossing route to receiver Tavin Richardson, may have gone for a long score. "He's still running right now if we hit that, and it changes the game. And you never know in this game what play is going to change the game. We always talk about that. You've got to be ready every single moment. Hopefully we'll learn from that. He's hit that same play 50 times this camp."

* Six-foot-6, 225-pound receiver Kayaune Ross had a strong day of practice Tuesday, Gran said. He caught a pass on UK's first offensive play of the season, but was not targeted again the rest of the day. "He's a guy we've got to get involved. Throw it up there. You look at a couple of (Southern Miss receivers). They just threw it up there, and some of their guys made plays. Sometimes that's what you've got to do; give 'em a chance."

* Sophomore offensive tackle Landon Young graded out well against Southern Miss, both Gran and UK offensive line coach John Schlarman said. "He competed well and did some nice things."