After an impressive showing in his debut as Kentucky's new offensive coordinator, Bush Hamdan sees the degree of difficulty increase significantly in Week 2.
The Wildcats must contend with one of the stingier defensive units in the SEC when South Carolina (1-0) visits Kroger Field on Saturday for the league opener.
The Gamecocks, who are expected to go through some growing pains on the offensive side of the ball this season, leaned heavily on their defense in a closer-than-expected 23-19 win over Old Dominion last week.
The unit recorded eight tackles for loss, five sacks, four quarterback hurries, and forced four turnovers in the victory. Two of the fumbles occurred deep in ODU territory, leading to 14 points for a South Carolina squad struggling to generate offense.
Two men responsible for much of that havoc were senior edge Kyle Kennard and highly touted freshman edge Dylan Stewart. The duo combined for eight tackles, four sacks, and three forced fumbles in South Carolina's opener.
“They have a really good combination with 5 (Kennard) and 6 (Stewart)," UK head coach Mark Stoops said during Monday's weekly press luncheon. " You can see them both out there, you can’t miss them. You might get their numbers confused. One is a very mature, older player that is an impact player in Kyle Kennard, and then with Dylan Stewart, the five-star freshman, a big-time player, very disruptive.
"Those guys are very good players. They’re athletic, they get off the football, they attack, but they also have a nice feel. When (Old Dominion) tried to bait them upfield and run some draws and things of that nature, they read it well and retraced well, so they’re good football players.”
The disruptive duo will likely be a major priority in UK's offensive gameplan. The chess match will also feature some potential pluses for Hamdan, who has two of the more experienced tackles in the SEC in Marques Cox and Gerald Mincey.
The Cats were able to limit their mistakes last week in a 31-0 romp over Southern Miss, a game that was deemed over with 9:56 remaining in the third quarter due to several lightning delays during the evening in Lexington.
Kentucky did the things against Southern Miss that one would expect to be keys to success against the Gamecocks: balance with 169 yards through the air and 148 yards on the ground; no fumbles; no sacks allowed, no pre-snap penalties.
New UK quarterback Brock Vandagriff was also impressive, completing 12 of 18 passes for 169 yards and three touchdowns with only a tipped-ball interception as a blemish. He also ran the ball for 35 yards on five carries, keeping the Golden Eagle defense off-balance.
“I think he made very good decisions," Stoops said. "... I thought his pocket awareness was very good. In practice, it’s hard to simulate all of that all the time, but the fact that he could step up and scramble when he had to buy time to throw the ball, throw in rhythm and on time, he did all those things.
"We’re certainly not going to be as comfortable this week with South Carolina’s defensive front and the way they can pressure the quarterback, so we got to make sure we have a very good plan for that."
But most coaches will attest that the best way to slow down an aggressive pass rush is to run the ball effectively. That's been an emphasis for Stoops since camp opened this summer.
"I thought the coaches did a nice job of mixing it up and mixing up the run game, hitting them with some perimeter stuff, stretching it out, hitting downhill, just a good mixture," Stoops said of the ground-game effort in the opener.
