Name: Tipsheet: Kentucky looks to fix its erratic passing game before facing Missouri
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Tipsheet: Kentucky looks to fix its erratic passing game before facing Missouri

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Skip to main contentPlease purchase a subscription to continue reading.Sign UpLog InLog InPurchase a SubscriptionYou have permission to edit this article.EditHomeNewsPolice BeatSportsOutdoor NewsClassifiedsMizzou football coach answers questions about a key ejection, penalties and more. (Video by Mizzou Network, used with permission of Mizzou Athletics; edited by Ethan Erickson)After his scatter-armed performance at Georgia, Kentucky quarterback Devin Leary will be under the spotlight when the Wildcats host Missouri Saturday.The former North Carolina State star completed just 10-of-26 passes for 128 yards in the 51-13 loss to the Bulldogs.Overall Leary has completed 92-of-168 passes for 1,257 yards, 12 touchdowns and five interceptions. By comparison, Missouri quarterback Brady Cook has completed 135-of-188 passes for 1,879 yards, 13 touchdowns and two interceptions.The Wildcats hoped Leary would light up the SEC this season while working with offensive coordinator Liam Coen, who returned to Lexington after a one-season NFL stint with the Los Angeles Rams.That has not happened . . . yet.“I was a little disappointed myself,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said after the loss at Georgia. “Usually, I don’t say a whole lot during games to a quarterback to not get him off, but there’s no excuse to not hit some of those passes. I mean, we had some guys wide open, you know? We missed some open plays to keep it close early.”The Wildcats felt good about their passing game coming into the Georgia game, but it never really got in sync.“I thought we threw it really well throughout the course of the week,” Coen said. “We've been diligent about fixing the pass game. We threw it 26 times, only completed 10 of them. That's not where we want to be.”Upon further review, Stoops was still disappointed with Leary’s play when he met again with media on Monday.“Sometimes it is his feet or his footwork and sometimes him maybe expecting a receiver to run out at a different angle,” Stoops said. “There's some little things and there's some that just have to make. He doesn't need me to sit here and make an excuse for him. He's a big boy and he owns it. Just like everybody else on our team you have to have the courage to see the areas that you need to improve on and you have to own it.”THE GRIDIRON CHRONICLESHere is what folks were writing about college football:Matt Hinton, Saturday Down South: “Is there any quarterback in America who means more to his team right now than Jayden Daniels? He was arguably the nation’s hottest QB at the end of September, and he only keeps getting hotter by the week. Given the state of LSU’s defense, that’s largely out of necessity. Anything less, and the Tigers’ season would be in freefall. Saturday's come-from-behind,&nbsp;49-39 win&nbsp;at Missouri was the third consecutive game that saw LSU fall behind by double digits in the first half, and in each case that has only marked the beginning of the festivities. Over their past 11 quarters, the Tigers have faced 30 non-half-ending possessions against Arkansas, Ole Miss and Mizzou, and given up points on 20 of them. Meanwhile, LSU’s offense hasn’t touched the ball at any point in that span with a lead larger than 2 points. In Columbia, Daniels didn’t take a snap with the lead until the 1:02 mark of the 4th quarter. And yet: Here they are, still clinging to life in the SEC West at midseason, more or less exclusively on the consistency, athleticism and resilience of a quarterback whose head coach described him after the latest comeback — accurately — as&nbsp;‘one bad ass.’&nbsp;Daniels’ performance at Mizzou yielded career highs for both pass efficiency (222.2) and&nbsp;Total QBR&nbsp;(97.1), as well as for rushing yards (130). He accounted for 4 touchdowns (3 passing, 1 rushing), the 5th consecutive game that he’s accounted for 4 or more. And he did much of his best work playing through visible pain following a shot to the ribs.”Pete Fiutak, College Football News: “Did Georgia look No. 1ey enough for everyone now? Kentucky might not be a world-beater, but who in the SEC is? Alabama? Not really. Tennessee? Considering the way it lost to Florida, no. LSU? Texas A&amp;M? Maybe, and Georgia doesn’t have to face either of them. Remember, last year going into early October, Georgia was coming off a sluggish win against Kent State and then needed everything in the bag to slip by Missouri in the final moments 26-22. That win over the Tigers was Week 5, just like the fight with Auburn was this season. And what did Georgia do after that close call at Mizzou? It ripped up Auburn 42-10 and destroyed everything in its path until dealing with Ohio State in the&nbsp;College Football Playoff. No, this isn’t last year’s team, but Kentucky came into the game on Saturday 5-0 with a vastly improved offensive line and a strong, talented backfield put together through the transfer portal. And it wasn’t even close. Georgia shut it all down cold in the 51-13 stomping - by the way, until the national title blowout over TCU, last year’s team only cranked up more than 50 once in a 55-0 whacking of Vanderbilt - with the running game going off and Carson Beck throwing for 389 yards and four scores. Florida could catch the Dawgs under the right circumstances in a few weeks. Missouri, Ole Miss, at Tennessee, and maybe-just-maybe at Georgia Tech could all make for a tough finishing kick after the light scrimmage against Vanderbilt this week.”Bill Connelly, ESPN.com: “One of the main topics of the offseason was the distribution of known stars at quarterback. The most proven guys were at schools outside of the top five, while most of the top five teams were replacing multiyear standouts. Would that disrupt the balance of power a bit? Would all of the newbies thrive? On Saturday, the marquee newbies indeed thrived. Georgia's&nbsp;Carson Beck, Michigan's&nbsp;J.J. McCarthy&nbsp;and Ohio State's&nbsp;Kyle McCord&nbsp;completed 73% of their passes for a combined 928 yards and seven touchdowns, with a couple of rushing scores thrown in as well, as their unbeaten teams won by a combined 140-40. In addition, Alabama's&nbsp;Jalen Milroe&nbsp;threw for 321 yards in a win over Texas A&amp;M. The known stars? They were awesome too.&nbsp;Drake Maye&nbsp;threw for 442 yards as North Carolina remained unbeaten. LSU's&nbsp;Jayden Daniels&nbsp;threw for 259 yards and rushed for 130 yards in a comeback road win at Missouri. Oklahoma's&nbsp;Dillon Gabriel&nbsp;threw for 285 and rushed for 113 in the biggest rivalry win of his career. USC's&nbsp;Caleb Willams&nbsp;led a comeback win. Michigan's J.J. McCarthy maintained his top QBR ranking. It was quite a Saturday for quarterback play, in other words, and it could tell us a lot about where things are headed this season.”&nbsp;Tom Fornelli, CBSSports.com: “Is Louisville this year's TCU? There are plenty of similarities. Like TCU and Sonny Dykes, Louisville is led by an intelligent, offensive-minded coach in his first year at the school. Jeff Brohm is one of the primary reasons to believe in this Cardinals team as he's long been one of the more underrated coaches in the sport. Following the win against Notre Dame, Brohm had won four of his last six games against teams ranked in the top 10 of the AP Top 25.&nbsp; Like TCU, Louisville's offense features fast, reliable skill position players who may not be household names but are capable of explosive plays. Jawhar Jordan averages 108.8 rushing yards per game and his eight rushing touchdowns are tied for fourth nationally. Jamari Thrash is a big-play threat a la Quentin Johnston last year, and his 17.3 yards per reception ranks ninth among players with at least 25 receptions this season.”Dan Wolken, USA Today: “Have you heard of victory formation? That’s what football teams do when the game is mathematically over. They get up to the line of scrimmage, snap the football and tell the quarterback to take a knee. Then the quarterback hops up, hands the football to a referee and starts celebrating because the clock is going to run out before they have to run another play.&nbsp; It’s the goal of every team to fight for 59 minutes so that they can run victory formation for last one.&nbsp;Miami coach Mario Cristobal has been part of football teams for nearly all of his life. And yet, at age 53, he still apparently does not know about this not-so-revolutionary football play. Because if he did, he would have run it Saturday night when the Hurricanes led Georgia Tech 20-17. The Yellow Jackets had no timeouts. There were 34 seconds left on the clock when the ball was snapped, which meant the game was over if Miami simply took a knee.&nbsp;And yet, for reasons that 99.99 percent of functioning humans would not be able to understand, Cristobal decided to run a regular handoff play for running back Donald Chaney.&nbsp;Chaney fumbled, Georgia Tech recovered, and quarterback Haynes King completed passes of 30 and 44 yards the final 21 seconds&nbsp;to give the Yellow Jackets a 23-20 win&nbsp;that you had to see to believe.”MEGAPHONE“Played like hot garbage. I’m trying to figure this out. Sick of it. I really am. I’m sick of us coming out here and putting forth the effort we put forth in the first half.”Colorado coach Deion Sanders, grumbling after his team’s harrowing 7-4 victory over Arizona State.Jeff Gordon&nbsp;@gordoszone on Twitterjgordon@post-dispatch.comOriginally published on stltoday.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.Cornerback Ennis Rakestraw Jr. will miss Missouri's upcoming game at Kentucky with a groin injury.Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.by TradingViewPowered by BLOX Content Management System from BLOX Digital.

Skip to main contentPlease purchase a subscription to continue reading.Sign UpLog InLog InPurchase a SubscriptionYou have permission to edit this article.EditHomeNewsPolice BeatSportsOutdoor NewsClassifiedsMizzou football coach answers questions about a key ejection, penalties and more. (Video by Mizzou Network, used with permission of Mizzou Athletics; edited by Ethan Erickson)After his scatter-armed performance at Georgia, Kentucky quarterback Devin Leary will be under the spotlight when the Wildcats host Missouri Saturday.The former North Carolina State star completed just 10-of-26...

Tipsheet: Kentucky looks to fix its erratic passing game before facing Missouri

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