Offensive line crucial for UK

By Joshua Huff

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UK football cannot catch a break. According to the SEC Network, UK is ranked No. 13 in the weekly power rankings despite winning its first SEC contest in three years.

The Cats are only ahead of Vanderbilt in the rankings, the team they beat this past Saturday, and are just behind Florida, whom they narrowly lost to back on Sept. 13.

South Carolina travels to Commonwealth Stadium Saturday coming off a heartbreaking last second loss to Missouri and are having a season that has more ups and downs than a rollercoaster. The Gamecocks blew a 20-7 lead to the Tigers and lost their second home game of the season.

UK could not have picked a better time to play the Gamecocks, but head coach Mark Stoops knows his team is in for a fight.

“They’re a good team,” Stoops said. “At times they look absolutely dominant. Just like a lot of teams, they have potential.”

The Gamecocks came into the matchup against Missouri with a defense that was ranked next to last in the SEC with 36 points allowed per game. But despite a 13-point lead, South Carolina couldn’t keep the Tigers out of the end zone, even after holding Missouri’s quarterback Maty Mauk to 57 yards in the first half.

“I know Coach Spurrier and their staff, they’ve been unhappy with inconsistent play at times,” Stoops said.

UK will look to take advantage of South Carolina’s inefficient defense, but only if the Cats’ offense can regain some footing and put together consistent drives.

“We’ve got to be more precise and execute better. We left a lot of runs on the field as well,” Stoops said.

After a game against Vanderbilt in which there were two separate storylines – the regression of the offense and the outstanding performance of the defense – the Cats will enter the game offensively looking for consistency and brimming with confidence on the defense.

Some of the blame on the offense should be placed on UK quarterback Patrick Towles. His four fumbles through the season (only one was lost) and four interceptions are hindering an offense that is heading into the meat of its conference schedule. But whether it’s the shuffling of the offensive line or the inconsistency of the running backs, the running game has been ineffective.

Ineffective to the point that UK’s leading rush attempt leader is Towles, who leads the offense with 49 rushing attempts and 205 rushing yards. Running back Braylon Heard is the only back that has more than 200 yards rushing, he has 22 yards. But Towles isn’t a running quarterback. Yes, his size masks his quickness but he is a more prototypical pocket passer. His throws, when he isn’t under pressure, are on point, but less and less Towles has had time to set and throw the ball.

But I’m not going to sit here and criticize Towles. He has only four starts in his career at UK and even head coach Mark Stoops realizes that his team is far from perfect and has said that too much blame gets put on the quarterback. So the blame needs to be shifted from Towles to the offensive line. Towles has been sacked 10 times and the running backs have rushed for just 641 yards. If UK wants to compete with even a weak SEC East division, they need to effectively run the ball.

And that starts at the line.