Photo by Vicki Graff
Kentucky is going to lose its starting secondary and linebackers Josh Allen and Jordan Jones off this year’s 9-3 team. It will return some defensive starters and has backups that gained valuable experience this year. However, looking to 2019, Kentucky may have to rely more on its offense even with the expected departure of running back Benny Snell to the NFL.
Maybe that’s why the best part of the 56-10 win over Louisville is the way sophomore quarterback Terry “Touchdown” Wilson played.
Wilson was 17 of 23 passing for 261 yards and three touchdowns with one interception and one sack. He also ran 10 times for 79 yards and one score — where his fake left a Louisville defender nailed to the turf. His longest run was 40 yards, something that had been missing the second half of the season after that ability is what helped him win the starting job over Gunnar Hoak in August.
That was his third game with 226 yards or more passing in UK’s final three games after he threw for 163 yards or fewer in UK’s first seven games, including three games with 78 or less yards.
Wilson has completed 67.6 percent (171 of 253) of his passes this season for 11 touchdowns with eight interceptions. However, in the first five games, he had just two touchdown passes — both against Florida — when the Cats’ running game was grinding out yards. When teams found a way to slow down Snell, Wilson was asked to do more and four times in the last five games completed 71 percent or more of his passes.
Wilson, a junior college transfer, finally admitted after the Louisville game that he was not healthy part of the season just like quarterback Stephen Johnson was last year when he literally limped through some games. Wilson had not been as explosive or aggressive in a stretch of games but kept insisting he was healthy even though he obviously was not.
“I have a few little bumps and bruises and stuff like that. I had like a little sprain in my knee,” Wilson said after the Louisville game. “But I’m feeling great. I’m feeling normal right now and this is a part of football, it comes with the game so I’ve just got to live in the treatment room and treat my body to get better.”
He’ll have a month before Kentucky’s next game — a likely berth in the Citrus Bowl Jan. 1 in Orlando. It helps to have that time to rehab coming off his best game at UK.
“I felt comfortable out there and we ran our playbook and we were making plays out there having fun, so I feel like we did good,” Wilson said after the Louisville win. “It was huge for us and it was a mindset for us that we needed to go out there and show everybody how explosive we are as an offense. We just came out humming and ready to go and ready to make plays and I feel like it was contagious.”
Teammates praised his play after the Louisville game in even stronger ways than they had during the year.
“He’s came such a long way from the beginning of the season on his decisions he makes, being more patient, and trusting the o-line to give him time. I’m proud of Terry, he’s great. He’s amazing,” Snell said.
Obviously recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow agrees.
“@TerryTouchdown is a good q.b and he’s only going to get better and I’m excited about this young man future,” Marrow posted on Twitter.
What I liked is that Wilson was not afraid to criticize himself. He never shied away from taking blame for UK’s loss at Texas A&M when he threw for just 108 yards and blamed himself for the offense’s dismal showing in the loss at Tennessee.
“When I look back and watch film it’s been times where I was a bit, not trusting in my reason and letting it go and not trusting everything,” Wilson admitted. “I feel like I’ve been playing my game (recently) and playing football and just letting everything happen. Not trying to force too much and just playing quarterback.”
He won’t have Snell or tight end C.J. Conrad with him next year but he’ll have Lynn Bowden, this year’s top receiver, and a trio of running backs with big-play ability led by A.J. Rose. Kentucky will be adding versatile and explosive receiver Wandale Robinson, this year’s Paul Hornung Award winner as Kentucky’s best high school player, to go with numerous returning receivers.
Wilson believes what the Cats did against Louisville — 601 total yards, 56 points — sets the tone not just for the bowl game but for 2019.
“I feel like our offense is explosive like that all the time. We’ve just got to go out there and put the pieces together and make it work,” Wilson said.
He thinks a nine-win season is now the standard, not the exception.
“I feel like we hold ourselves to a higher standard and coach Stoops does a great job on keeping our minds fresh and not trying to put too much on us. He wants the best for us and I feel like we all go out there and practice our best every day and I rarely see anybody slacking and if anybody is we’re all accountable for each other,” Wilson said. “I feel like that’s what it takes to be a successful football team but there still is growing that we need to do but I feel like we’re coming a long way.”
