By Joshua Huff

If you had to encapsulate UK’s season in one sentence, the age-old adage “home is where the heart is” fits perfectly as a summation of how the year played out for the Cats.

UK won five games at Commonwealth Stadium and outscored its opponents 251-184 while the struggles away from Lexington were frustrating to behold. The Cats’ were terrible on the road, losing all five games by an average of 92 points.

The inefficiency away from home screamed particularly true with UK’s offense.

Overall, the Cats’ offense ranked near the bottom of the SEC, just ahead of teams with bad offenses like Vanderbilt and Florida.

But considering where UK was last season with that two-quarterback system, this season was a success despite its record and statistical rankings. Patrick Towles, at times, was a decent quarterback. His ability to throw the deep ball opened doors for an offense that struggled to consistently run the ball. He ended the season as the fifth-best quarterback statistically in the SEC in terms of yards. His 14-9 touchdown to interception ratio needs to be improved and his completion percentage of 57 percent doesn’t scare anybody. In terms of expectations, it’s safe to say he exceeded those.

The biggest issue this season and heading into next is the play of the offensive line.

For UK to improve in all areas this offseason, the line needs to find a way to improve. With the talent that UK has in the backfield, there should be no excuse for why none of those backs ran for over 1,000 yards.

Despite the offensive line’s woes, the running backs did show potential. Stanley “Boom” Williams was the cream of the running backs. His play rose to the top while players like Jojo Kemp and Braylon Heard were rendered mute down the stretch as their touches became fewer. Next season will be promising as Williams will resume the starting job and fellow freshman Mikel Horton will more than likely see more touches in place of Kemp and Heard.

Another area that showed UK’s future potential was the receiver position. With a core group of young players poised to take the next step next season, Towles, if he retains his starting position, should be plenty excited. Returning will be receiver Ryan Timmons, who showed how good he can be if he puts his full effort into every game, and players with size and speed like freshmen Black Bone, Garrett Johnson and Dorian Baker.

However this season the growing pains were on display as the inexperience and inconsistency showed.

Some of their poor play is a consequence of poor play calling. Too many times, the Cats abandoned playing north-to-south for an east -to-west attack that failed more often than not to garner any positive yards.

With the questionable play calling and terrible performances on the road, UK struggled to step out of the quagmire that is the SEC. Another season has come and gone with as many negatives as there are positives on the season-ending checklist, but the potential remains high. So with that, the offense this season earns a generous C+ because it’s hard to ignore the roses that are budding from this season, regardless of the poor play at times.