Kentucky’s second and final preseason scrimmage brought a much cleaner feel than the first one, and the coaches noticed the difference right away.
Will Stein said the Wildcats responded well after the previous Saturday and showed up with the right mindset. Even with plenty still to fix on both sides of the ball, he came away encouraged by the overall work.
“It was a good week. I think they responded well from the previous Saturday as a whole… They came out with the right attitude and mentality. Plenty of things to clean up on both sides of the ball,” said Stein.
He pointed to the defense as the group that set the tone. Turnovers were the headline there, while the offense gave the ball away too often early before settling in during the red-area work.
“I thought the defense did a great job, which is ball excellence, taking it away. Had some early fumbles by the offense, which is not a sign of playing winning football on that side.
But, the offense recovered in the red-area portion of the scrimmage. Did a nice job scoring some touchdowns, but all in all, I thought we had a really good week and thought the guys got better as a whole.”
Joe Sloan was far less pleased with the ball security. From his view, putting it on the turf is an easy way to get yourself pulled from the field.
“We put the ball on the ground a couple times, and if you do that, you won’t play. It’s just that simple,” said Sloan. “But you know, outside of that, I thought there were some really good situational things, some guys taking advantage, some really good work, and a big improvement that we carry throughout the week and into Saturday.”
On the offensive side, Kentucky looked more organized and more functional than it did in the first scrimmage. When the Wildcats lined up correctly and handled their assignments, the results followed. There were a few plays that stood out, too: Brock Coffman pulled in an impressive one-handed catch, freshman wideout Prince Jean continued to look like a steady threat, and DJ Miller came down with a deep shot after missing practice time last week.
Stein also said quarterback Kenny Minchey has put together an “elite” fall camp, but he knows the first game brings a different kind of pressure. With Minchey set to start under the lights at Kroger Field, Stein wants him focused on a simple truth about the position.
“There’s going to be times in the game where he’s going to have to go make plays, but the key I think for all young quarterbacks is to know that more quarterbacks on Saturdays lose the game for their team than they do for than they do win it,” said Stein.
Kentucky is now two weeks away from its season-opener against Youngstown State, and the staff sounds eager to see how the work from camp carries over once the games count.
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