Cats' second day in pads signals drive to reclaim physical identity

The Kentucky head coach thinks the Wildcats lost some of their physical identity during a frustrating 7-6 campaign that culminated in the program's first bowl game loss in five consecutive trips.

That message has been hammered through to the Cats during off-season workouts, and the early results were on display Saturday during UK's annual "Fan Day" practice.

"It's a good, physical period," Stoops said of the 11-on-11 run drills that had the pads cracking early in the workout. "... I thought our physicality is starting to come back on the offensive side of the ball, and I want to continue to see that."

Kentucky's punishing ground attack has been the trademark of its offense under Stoops, but the Cats went from No. 4 nationally in 2019 (6.32 yards per carry) to No. 107 in 2022 (3.26 yards per carry).

The coaching staff set out to address the problem by adding several linemen via the transfer portal, including a pair of new offensive tackles in Marques Cox (Northern Illinois) and Courtland Ford (USC), guards Ben Christman (Ohio State) and Tanner Bowles (Alabama), and guard/tackle Dylan Ray (West Virginia).

The message was clear to the returning players: the Big Blue Wall must be restored.

"A lot of that is mentality," Stoops said Saturday.

Even a pair of veteran players -- senior tight end Brenden Bates and senior defensive end Octavious Oxendine -- noted that the competitive fire was unusually high for the first week of practice and only the second day in pads.

"This practice was very physical," Bates said. "Definitely the most physical one that we've had. It was a huge jump from yesterday's practice, which is what you're looking for."

Bates joked that his position group coach, Vince Marrow, has even posted a reminder in the tight end meeting room about what is expected this season.

"If you look up in his room, it says on the front panel of the door -- and he emphasizes this every single day -- 'No soft crap.' But that's obviously censored," Bates said with a smile. "That's what he emphasizes every day during film. If he sees any kind of softness going on, he will nip that in the bud."

The intensity even led to a couple of extra-curricular skirmishes on Saturday.

"No bad blood," Oxendine said with a grin. "It's just football. We're out here to compete and have fun."

NOTES:

* Freshman wide receiver Anthony Brown drew attention on Saturday for his ability to get open and make plays down the field. That position group may be one of the thinnest on the roster, so it was encouraging to see Springfield, Ohio, product making an early impact. He appears to be competing for the No. 4 wideout behind Dane Key, Barion Brown, and Tayvion Robinson. Said Stoops: "We just need him to step up and play, and he's done that. Today, we were running some man stuff, so he won some one-on-ones, as you saw. He's a shifty guy, a good player."

* Two other players who could emerge in the passing attack and help relieve some of the lack of depth in the receiving corps are running back Demie Sumo-Karngbaye and tight end Izayah Cummings. Sumo-Karngbaye, a transfer from NC State, demonstrated Saturday that he could be a nice weapon coming out of the backfield, and even hauled in a deep ball that excited fans. "Liam (Coen) is good an creative that way," Stoops said of using other positions in the passing attack."Demie has been very versatile, just good in a lot of different ways. Really picking things up." Cummings, meanwhile, is looking to re-emerge as a threat under Coen after playing sparingly last season for OC Rich Scangalrello. "We saw him have success in this system a few years ago with his speed, moving him around. We need that," Stoops said.