By Keith Taylor
Special to NKyTribune
It’s time for a little less talk and a lot more action.
There’s certainly been plenty of chatter during fall workouts as Kentucky coach Mark Stoops begins his third season as coach of the Wildcats Saturday in the season opener against Louisiana Lafayette.
The opener has been a long time coming for a Kentucky team that ended the season with a 5-7 record after winning five of its first six games. Waiting to get a win after six consecutive losses made a long off-season even longer.
“Excited to get the season going,” Stoops said Monday. “It feels like it’s been a long summer.”
All summer long, much talk has been about the $120 million upgrade of Commonwealth Stadium, bringing a massive facelift to a stadium that first opened its doors to the public in 1973. Many upgrades have occurred during the past four decades, but not as drastic as the one undertaken by the school nearly two years ago.
“It (the stadium upgrade) certainly adds to (the excitement),” Stoops said. “If you look back to the time I arrived, and the three years of building this program and building this stadium, the anticipation for (Saturday) — it is an exciting time. We get one opportunity for a first impression.”
During fall camp, a quarterback battle ensued between Patrick Towles and Drew Barker, a race that lasted a little more than a week, before Stoops and offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson settled on Towles, the incumbent. After Towles was named the starter, the coaching staff boasted of Towles’ progress, but also pointed out Barker’s improvement, a sign either signal caller can get the job done.
With Towles at the controls, he has plenty of tools to work with. The receivers — Jeff Badet, Dorian Baker, Garrett Johnson, Blake Bone, Ryan Timmons and Thaddeus Snodgrass — bring much-needed experience at the wideout slot. The backfield isn’t too shabby, either, with the return of Stanley “Boom” Williams, Jojo Kemp, Mikel Horton and the addition of Sihiem King, a true freshman.
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“We’re not re-inventing the wheel,” Stoops said. “Coach Dawson has a good handle on some of the things that he likes to do. It will be similar (to last year).”
During the past two years, the team’s recruiting has experienced an obvious upgrade, giving Big Blue Nation more reasons to be optimistic. Four newcomers — tight end C.J. Conrad, right tackle George Asafo-Adjei, cornerback Chris Westry and kickoff returner King — are charted first on the Kentucky depth chart released Monday.
“We’re a much different team than when we took the field my first year,” Stoops said. “Last year we had some good talent and we had to rely on that talent to win some football games, but we were very young. This year we are playing nine true freshmen and 10 redshirt freshmen. Any experience we’ve got the past couple of years will only help us.”
Dawson’s arrival has Kentucky followers eager to see what the offense will look like, while a changeup in defensive schemes from a 4-3 to a 3-4 front also has many fans talking.
“It comes down to make more stops and we need to be better across the board,” Stoops said. “It comes down to playing as a team and it comes in all phases. We’ve improved in a lot of areas and run defense is one of them. I’ll anticipate we’ll be improved.”
A favorable schedule provides another topic of discussion. The Wildcats have eight home games scheduled this season, with five of those during the first six weeks. Chatter of a reaching the postseason for the first time since 2010 also has Wildcat fans talking.
Come Saturday, the talk ends and the season begins.
Keith Taylor is a columnist and senior sports reporter for KyForward.com