On a weird night, Bush Hamdan’s offense gave UK fans reason for hope

They started playing football in the venue the University of Kentucky now calls Kroger Field in 1973. In all that time, there has never been a weirder game than UK’s 2024 season opener against Southern Mississippi proved to be.

Bizarre is the only description for a contest slated to kick off at 7:45 p.m. that instead begins at 10:05 p.m. due to lightning in the vicinity of the stadium.

Strange is a perfect way to characterize a contest that might well have been over by 11:33 p.m. under normal circumstances but was instead just starting its second half at that late hour.

Unconventional is the only categorization for a game that ended after only 35:04 of elapsed playing time instead of the normal 60 minutes.

“Very strange situation here,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said afterward. “I’ve been here 12 years. I’ve never been through delays like that.”

What will go into the record books as a 31-0 Kentucky victory over Southern Mississippi was declared over by officials with 9:56 remaining in the third quarter due to the impending arrival of stormy weather.

Yet on a night when Mother Nature wreaked havoc, Kentucky football backers who have been yearning for crisper offensive play received some flickers of hope.

In the first game in which Bush Hamdan, the former Boise State quarterback and offensive coordinator, called the plays for UK, the Wildcats showed some balance, found some rhythm and played at a quicker tempo than the snail’s pace that had defined the Kentucky offense the previous two seasons.

In barely more than half a normal game, the Kentucky offense put up 31 points, 317 total yards and ran 42 plays from scrimmage.

For a program that never ran more than 63 plays in an entire game in 2023, snapping the ball 42 times in 35:04 of elapsed playing time Saturday night felt almost revolutionary.

“You guys heard me talk a lot in the offseason about just getting plays (run), getting in a rhythm,” Stoops said. “I think you saw a glimpse of that today and we were certainly getting in good rhythm.”

While calling plays from the press box, Hamdan “operated like I anticipated he would,” Stoops said. “... Very calm demeanor. Very decisive in his checks.”

In his first collegiate start, Kentucky quarterback Brock Vandagriff’s performance was, mostly, encouraging. The former Georgia Bulldog threw three touchdown passes while completing 12of 18 throws overall for 169 yards.

As advertised, the 6-foot-3, 217-pound junior from Bogart, Georgia, proved a capable — and physical — runner. He carried the ball five times for 35 yards and dropped his pads and invited contact on multiple runs.

Vandagriff also showed an impressive ability to extend plays and then complete passes while on the run.

“Brock, I thought, did just a super job of managing the game,” Stoops said.

On the debit side, Vandagriff made some bad throws, especially early in the game. UK’s first drive of the season ended when USM middle linebacker Ja’len Sims tipped an errant Vandagriff throw and hybrid safety Dylan Lawrence picked it off.

On a play early in the second quarter, Vandagriff locked onto UK wideout Fred Farrier as soon as the ball was snapped and threw into heavy coverage. As a result, Southern Miss safety Ques McNeal had a pick-six touchdown easily within his grasp — only to drop the ball.

After waiting three years at Georgia for a starting opportunity that never came, Vandagriff told the Lexington media last week he would be so excited prior to be starting against USM that he would not be able to sleep Friday night.

Then Saturday’s game went so deep into the night that Vandagriff seemed on the verge of needing to pull back-to-back all-nighters.

“It’s way past my bed time,” Vandagriff said early Sunday morning while meeting with reporters. “It’ll be rough waking up for church. But we’ll be there.”

Around its new quarterback, Kentucky has weapons. On Saturday night, Hamdan did a good job of making sure UK spread the ball among them.

Dynamic wideout Barion Brown caught four passes for 28 yards (and would have had one more reception had he not dropped a catchable pass over the middle) and two touchdowns. He carried the ball three times for 14 more yards.

Dane Key caught three passes (for 60 yards), Ja’Mori Maclin grabbed two receptions (66 yards) and Jordan Dingle had two (3 yards and a touchdown), too.

With presumptive starting running back Chip Trayanum sidelined by injury, Kentucky spread its carries among senior Demie Sumo-Karngbaye (59 yards and a TD on eight carries) and freshmen Jason Patterson (28 yards, four carries) and Jamarion Wilcox (8 yards on two carries).

The best news was that, when Kentucky wanted to run the ball, its backs seemed to have holes in which to run.

“I liked what I saw,” Stoops said when asked about UK’s offensive line play.

We are going to learn a whole lot more about Hamdan’s offense in the next two weeks, of course. Kentucky will face a good SEC defense, South Carolina, followed by a great SEC defense, Georgia.

Based on what we saw against an overmatched Southern Miss on a wet and wacky Saturday night, UK fans should have, at the very least, a viable hope that Kentucky’s fourth different OC since 2020 could finally turn out to be the “right one.”

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