Kentucky Continues Looking for Answers to Offensive Line Issues

There continues to be a lack of progression from the Big Blue Wall through six weeks of the season

Kentucky's struggles at offensive line have become well-documented over the course of the first six weeks of the season. 

The Big Blue Wall is 128th out of 131 FBS schools in sacks allowed-per-game, giving up 4.2 every four quarters. It's the second worst mark amongst Power Five schools, behind just Texas Tech. UK also ranks 111th in tackles-for-loss allowed with an average of seven per-game. 

In short, Kentucky's O-line is doing the offense zero favors when running or throwing the football. A light was shined on that once again in the Wildcats 24-14 loss to South Carolina. 

With star quarterback Will Levis out of the game due to injury, redshirt freshman Kaiya Sheron stepped into a big spot, needing the pieces around him to perform in order to be successful. 

Six sacks later, that was far from the outcome the young QB had hoped for in his first career start. Some of those sacks were on Sheron and his inexperience in the pocket, but plenty of blame should once again be pointed in the direction of the trenches. 

UK offensive line coach Zach Yenser is well aware of the shortcomings his group has had all season long. 

"I think our guys are continuing to play hard and fighting. Obviously we had another lineup out there, so we're just continuing to work through some injuries and stuff like that."

The easy answer to the questions that have surrounded the lineman is that lack of continuity. Three starting lineman have already dealt with injuries this season, forcing each to miss some sort of time.

Right tackle Jeremy Flax was the latest to fall victim to injury, as he left the Ole Miss game late in the fourth quarter and did not dress out last Saturday against South Carolina. 

In his place was sophomore Deondre Buford, who made his first career start. 

"Deon(dre) had a great week of practice last week, he prepared very well for it," Yenser said of Buford. "He came out and I thought he played well, he kinda got shook early in the second half."

The Wildcats' first drive of the second half was cut rather short, as Buford and that right side were responsible for two sacks on Sheron in three plays, totaling a loss of 20 yards and an eventual punt back to the Gamecocks.

Down the stretch of the game, when a loss was already certain, the South Carolina pass rush seized to let up, maintaining pressure, getting to Sheron a few more times. Buford's performance was far from perfect, but with the bar being as low as it is for the Wildcats O-line, it was serviceable. 

"He recovered, and like we talk about, we got to be able to protect at the end of the game when everybody knows you're throwing the football," Yenser continued on Buford. "But for the most part, I thought he graded out well, played physical in the run game, just has to continue—when he gets his opportunity, and just continue to build on it." 

The entire right side of the line had a sub-par night against South Carolina. Auburn transfer and veteran right guard Tashawn Manning was the culprit of nearly back-to-back false start penalties, killing UK's third drive of the first quarter. 

In the consecutive losses, procedurals have become more and more of a headache for Yenser and his group, something he takes personal as a coach: 

"(Manning) owned up to it, it was just on him, it wasn't on the cadence, it wasn't on anything," he said. "That's on us, that's on me as a football coach, we gotta get it fixed because we have no error to go backwards, we can't do it and that's on us."

While it may seem simple to not jump before the ball is snapped, there's much more that goes into getting off the line at the right time, though it doesn't make the miscues a valid excuse. 

"You've got the play-call, you've got what front they're in, you've got a lot going through your mind," Yenser said. "But, the good ones and the guys that are calm and know—and we have been good at it in the last two weeks, we've just gotten off—It is definitely a concentration thing."

Waiting in the wings as a potential starter down the road for Yenser and the Wildcats is highly touted recruit and behemoth freshman Kiyaunta Goodwin. 

Standing 6-foot-8, 351 pounds, Goodwin's commitment to Kentucky was considered a huge get for the future of the Big Blue Wall.

It was expected that his impact would be immediate, with multiple lineman from the 2021 roster leaving for the NFL. Instead, he was named a backup after competing for the starting left tackle position throughout fall camp. 

With no redshirting on the table, it remains to be seen how much will be seen of Goodwin on the field over the course of his freshman season. Yenser provided an update on the progression of the largest man on UK's roster on Tuesday: 

"Kiyaunta is right there. The big thing he has to work on is getting off on the snap count, we talked about that in the spring, and just playing fast," he said. "Because when he knows what to do, he has a chance, so I think he's going to be able to help us, but he's right there. You can see he's getting extra work and he knows what he has to work on."

It's not impossible to see progression in the right direction in the middle to back-half of the year, but through six weeks, nothing has budged. The pieces appear to be there, the group is doing its best to gel, but at the end of the day, the line is losing one-on-ones and doing a bad job of protecting the QB and opening up holes for the running backs. 

Barring a flip of the script, Kentucky's offensive line will remain a big liability for the remainder of the 2022 season. 

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