Kentucky Football Spring Game: 3 Takeaways and Final Box Score

The Kentucky Wildcats have wrapped up the spring football season.

The spring game was scored a little differently than usual in hopes of making the game a little more competitive. It worked well with the Blue Team beating the White Team, 45-32.

Let's go over a few things to know about the Wildcats’ upcoming season:

The QB Position Is Still Up For Grabs

One big anticipation for this scrimmage was the QB play. With mystery still surrounding the position, many were watching closely to see which young passer would be taking over the offense.

Gunnar Hoak took the field first for the Blue Team and drove them to a score of 3. He looked confident in the pocket and showed a little of what he did last year in the spring game. He was good on his feet, played well in the pocket, and took care of the ball which has been a problem for this team. Just like we saw after last year's game, the play in spring doesn’t necessarily correlate into a regular season starting position.

Touchdown Terry Wilson switched off back and forth with Hoak and looked to fit into the offense nicely as well. This guy can flat out run the ball. If it weren’t for the two-hand touch instead of tackling, Wilson would've had multiple big rushing plays and touchdowns on the ground.

You won't have to worry about the pocket collapsing on him with nowhere to go that’s for sure. He will make a play. Wilson did seem to be going for the big plays a little more than Hoak, overthrowing a few of them and throwing a pick, but altogether, his play was good. Should he be under snap in the regular season, I believe he’ll play more conservatively.

Danny Clark finished the game out, but it seems that Coach Stoops has it down to the first two QBs for the starting job.

The guy in charge of leading this team is still uncertain, but I like our chances with either under center.

Benny Snell Jr. Is Still Benny Snell Jr.

Although Benny Snell didn’t play heavy minutes in the scrimmage, he still made his presence felt. When you have a back who can run for 1,333 yards in a season with 19 TDs you’ll be happy, and I think he may even top that this year.

Before the game, Stoops let the media know that Snell wouldn’t be playing heavy minutes in this exhibition match. There’s no reason to risk your star player in a game that won’t affect your season in any way, especially when Asim “A.J.” Rose was running the ball so well against the defense. Rose ended the game with multiple touchdowns and over 100 all-purpose yards. It’s great to see that caliber play from the number two running back.

If Rose can carry this play into the season, he and Snell could be a very powerful one-two punch. Snell being more of a combo back and Rose being a slasher, defenses would have a tough time stopping them. Combine their play with the speed and skill of Terry Wilson in the pocket, and the Cats might be in for a very good season.

Defense May Need Some Work

The Wildcats defense looked solid but not as complete as we might like.

At the half, the defense had scored 17 points from three sacks, four tackles-for-loss, one TO, and a few three-and-outs forced. LB Kash Daniel was on fire tonight and gave everyone something to truly look forward to seeing on the defensive end throughout the season. It was good to see the guys put in the effort tonight, but there were still a few holes that hopefully get filled throughout the season.

The amount of breakaway plays allowed through the air and on the ground makes you feel a little uncertain of their ability to stop big plays down the stretch. Our DBs played well against the deep pass that Wilson kept trying to pull on them, but when one would break it would break big, especially on the ground. Rose & Snell both tore them up whenever they had the ball.

Over the course of the season, UK’s young guys will develop some more and you should see a real difference from our late game fallouts of last year.

This season will be one that I don’t believe will end in defeat, but it may have it’s up and downs as all football season at UK do. Just be ready to stand behind our guys and give them the full support of BBN.

Here is the final box score: