LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Something strange was going on in the atmosphere around Kroger Field on Saturday night — and not just the lightning that delayed the start of Kentucky's season-opener against Southern Miss by two hours.
No, an even stranger disturbance was coming.
On Kentucky's first possession of the second half of a 31-0 victory, transfer quarterback Brock Vandagriff dropped back and fired a pass deep down the middle of the field that was incomplete. On second down, he dropped back and fired deep over the middle to Barion Brown, a play that resulted in a pass interference penalty.
On the play after that, Vandagriff again reared back and fired a pass deep down the right side of the field into the waiting arms of Ja'Mori Maclin, a 46-yard gain. Two plays later, Kentucky scored.
"He was so wide open," Vandagriff said of the deep completion. "I was thinking, 'Just don't overthrow him.' He did a really good job of getting open. Just put it on him and he'll make a play."
A few minutes later, lightning struck, the teams left the field, and, shortly after, the game was declared terminated.
Why not? The apocalypse might well have been upon us.
Kentucky had thrown deep on three straight plays from scrimmage.
It turns out, the forces at work on Kentucky's drive that night weren't supernatural. They emanated from the press box and new Kentucky offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan. Though, maybe, there was a bit of the supernatural in Wildcats head coach Mark Stoops letting three bombs fly without interceding.
In the coaches' meeting room on Sunday over film and coffee, Stoops said he took note of the trio of deep throws, and praised the aggressive air strategy.
"I told him I loved it," Stoops said. "I loved the way he attacked it and went at it. And that's not always going to happen, or anything like that, but you have to mix things up. You have to."
Kentucky went into the game not knowing much about Southern Miss. Coaches were reading the tea leaves, a little bit, and the press clippings.
"A year ago, I think they gave up a lot of explosives," Stoops said. "They talked about it in the preseason, about keeping things in front of them. So we went into it with the mindset of hitting some intermediate stuff and working those chains."
But it's just football nature. If you're killing a team with the short and intermediate passing game – to the tune of a 28-0 halftime lead, it has to adjust. And when Hamdan saw the adjustments, he went after the deep opportunities.
The only thing Stoops stressed is, "when we have our shots, hit them. There were a few that we missed. We checked out of one that had a shot and it was the right coverage for the right shot but we missed it. So, we'll continue to work with it. But I've noticed that with (Hamdan) all the way from spring — he's not afraid to get the ball down the field."
And he's not afraid to push the pace. Kentucky's season-high for offensive plays in a game a year ago was 63.
One just one half, plus one series, on Saturday night, the Wildcats ran 42. More over, of those, 13 were classified as "big" plays, passes of more than 15 yards or runs for more than 10.
"You guys heard me talk a lot in the offseason about just getting plays, getting in a rhythm," Stoops said. "I think you saw a glimpse of that today and we were certainly getting in good rhythm."
Long shots have always been a popular play in the bluegrass. It looks like they could be in style again in Lexington.
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