Wednesday Headlines: First impressions of Rich Scangarello and Zach Yenser

Kentucky’s two new assistants are making a good impression in spring football.

By John Morgan Francis@MonJorgan Apr 6, 2022, 6:40am EDT

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With the Kentucky Wildcats football spring game just four days away, a couple of new faces are making an impact on the Wildcats’ offense. Rich Scangarello, the team’s new offensive coordinator, as Zach Yenser leading the team’s offensive line are implementing their perspective on what was a much-improved offense last season.

While the Wildcats will dearly miss stud wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson, veteran quarterback Will Levis appears ready to lead a relatively new group of skill position players.

Kentucky Sports Radio’s Freddie Maggard gave his first impressions of Scangarello and Yenser on Tuesday — indicating that Kentucky fans should look forward to what they’ll see on the football field.

“First, it’s obvious that Scangarello is a detailed, highly intelligent, and analytical coach that appears to eat, sleep, and do football stuff twenty-four hours a day,” said Maggard as he detailed the new OC’s football personality.

“Expect a great deal of play-action after establishing the run game. Kentucky was efficient in that action a year ago. I’d expect that to remain an offensive strength.”

While Kentucky having Robinson last season made the passing game much “easier,” they won’t have that level of talent this season and play-action should help off-set that.

“Zach Yenser is a Football Dude. He’s a powerful offensive line coach that reminded me of the late, great John Schlarman. The passion in the coach’s voice was undeniable, refreshing, and quite honestly, much-needed,” Maggard said as he described Yenser.

“I want guys to play free. I don’t want guys to think a lot. We have assignments but we want to run through aiming points and we want to move people off the ball.”

Kentucky has quickly become one of the standout “offensive line” universities in college football and Yenser appears to have them on track to maintain that trend.

Seeing Liam Coen return to the NFL after one season was tough to swallow. Watching Eric Wolford head to Alabama was equally as tough. However, head coach Mark Stoops has done well with many things at Kentucky and one of those has been hiring quality assistants. Scangarello and Yenser appear to be of that high quality class and Big Blue Nation should be excited to see what they have in store for Saturday’s spring game.

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