Back on August 26th in an article I wrote for Vaughtsviews I asked this question, “With Dean Hood gone will special teams still be “special” this year?”. After watching mistake after mistake on special teams in two losing efforts this season – a 29-13 loss to Auburn and a 42-41 overtime loss to Ole Miss – I think we have the answer. It is resounding NO!
I stated in that article back in August that it looked like a quality control assistant would handle special teams on a daily basis and for game days it appeared that it would be special teams coaching by committee. I’m not sure if that is exactly how it has played out this season but I do know this – one of the poorest aspects of the UK Football team’s performance so far this season has to be special teams. It ranks right up there with the secondary’s lack of ability to consistently cover anybody, at anytime, anywhere on the field.
For two games now we have witnessed short kickoffs, poor kickoff coverage that led to returns by the opponent well beyond the 25-yard line, missed extra points, missed field goals, a critical botched fake punt play, an undefended two point conversion by Auburn and the list goes on. If it were not for Max Duffy’s excellent punting so far this season I would call special teams a complete washout.
And that’s not all. Not only has special teams been abysmal but so has the play of the UK secondary. You know, the one that was ranked No. 2 in the nation last season for passing yards allowed per game. The one that returned almost every starter plus returning a back-from-injury Davonte Robinson. The one that included supposed All-SEC cornerback candidate in LSU transfer Kelvin Joseph.
Well that secondary, which is no longer coached by former UK assistant Dean Hood, is now ranked as the 51st team in the country in passing yards allowed. That’s a huge drop from No 2 to No 51.
So, knowing that Dean Hood no longer coaches UK special teams and the secondary could it be a coincidence that both of those key areas have now played extremely poorly two games into the season? My opinion it’s no coincidence at all. Kentucky still has all the same secondary players, same place kicker and the same Ray Guy award winning punter. The kickoff specialist has changed from Grant McKinnis who transferred to Missouri to Chance Poore but overall not much personnel change.
Could this be the fruit of a decision not to replace the special teams coach made several months ago when Dean Hood left to take the Murray State head coaching job? As an outsider looking in it sure appears that way to me.
In that aforementioned article from back in August I also said, “If special teams are tremendous again this year Mark Stoops will be hailed as a great strategic head coach by not replacing Dean Hood with another special teams guy but if they struggle with made field goals or kick coverage then all of a sudden the move might not look so good.”
I think right now, two games into the season, that move doesn’t look so good but as any good baker will tell you, “Nothing tastes good when it’s only half baked” so we will have to give it a few more games to see if Mark Stoops can get the problems with special teams corrected.
Here’s hoping he can because something has to give, Kentucky can’t afford to throw away anymore winnable games because of mis-communication or poor execution in an area like special teams that is so critical to winning football games.
— Keith Peel, Contributing Writer
