Landon Young is considered one of the Southeastern Conference’s best offensive tackles — and that obviously makes him one of the best in the nation. However, he knows one part of his game he has to improve.
“One big thing I have been working on is my pass game,” Young said. “Last year we ran 99 percent of time and there were not a lot of chances to showcase what we could do in the pass game and protecting that pocket.”
Young was embellishing a bit about running 99 percent of the time but not by much. When Lynn Bowden took over at quarterback, UK basically passed out of desperation or just to give Bowden a quick break from running.
Young knows Kentucky will be throwing more with Terry Wilson back at quarterback this year. He also knows that to play in the NFL like he wants — his former Lafayette High School teammate Jedrick Wills has just been named starting left tackle for the Cleveland Browns — he’s going to have to be able to show he can pass block.
He’s working with offensive line coach John Schlarman to sit in the pocket, get an “explosive” punch to stop pass rushers.
“I did a decent job in the run game (last year) but I’ve got to be able to sit back, be patient, not lunge and make a fool out of myself with fast guys coming off the edge (going by me) and protect the quarterback better,” Young said.
As much success as Kentucky had running over opponents last season, Young admits it will be interesting to return to a more traditional offense this season. He thinks UK can “shock” teams used to the run-only offense the Cats used last year.
“That adversity last year made us hone in and no matter what obstacles we have we can get together and win games,” Young said. “Even if we are one-sided and run every single play we can win or if we have to pass every play we can do that.
“With Lynn back there it gave us more discipline. You never knew what he (Bowden) would do. He might run, pass, dump it. You never knew where he would hit. It made us have a disciplined lock on guys and keep driving because you never knew where the ball might pop out on the line of scrimmage.”
