Kentucky’s Smith Takes Over As QB1
Aug 31, 2013; Nashville, TN, USA; Kentucky Wildcats quarterback Maxwell Smith (11) takes the field during warm ups prior to the game against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers at LP Field. Mandatory Credit: Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops announced Tuesday that Maxwell Smith will be the starting quarterback for this week’s game against Miami (Ohio).
The first-year coach made the decision public three days after the Wildcats took a beatdown from in-state little brother Western Kentucky.
Smith split snaps with Jalen Whitlow in the loss to the Hilltoppers.
Both accounted for Kentucky TDs with Smith providing more efficiency in the passing game. Smith connected on 8 of 13 passes for 125 yards and a TD. Whitlow completed a high percentage as well – hitting on 10 of 15 – but he only threw for 78 yards. The element Whitlow really added came from his legs. He wound up rushing for 75 yards and a TD.
Stoops and Wildcats OC Neal Brown went through spring practice and fall camp refusing to name a starter. As it turned out, Whitlow started and played until being lifted in favor of Smith in the fourth quarter.
It’s a good thing Stoops didn’t announce that Whitlow would be the team’s QB1.
Imagine: Western Kentucky could have actually beaten Kentucky. Wait…
That Stoops and Brown couldn’t settle on a starting quarterback much earlier should have been the first cause for concern. The three candidates – Whitlow, Smith and Patrick Towles – were still equally splitting reps midway into August camp. The race eventually got pared down to Whitlow and Smith (though Brown and Stoops would only announce it had dwindled to a two-man race, not who those two men were).
The indecisiveness cost Kentucky several weeks of giving a true starter the number of practices reps usual starters generally receive. Yes, Wildcats players said they took exhaustive numbers of reps to properly prepare whoever the quarterback would eventually be. But it couldn’t have possibly matched the normal number for The Guy getting his usual snaps.
Perhaps more disturbing, all three quarterbacks were already on campus. There was no junior-college arriving in August. There was no highly-touted freshman expecting to push for the starting position.
Brown and Stoops had all spring to evaluate the quarterbacks live. They had all summer to review film of practices and scrimmages and at least make it a two-man race.
They instead operated as though they had all the time in the world, postponing such a decision.
That also pushed back the decision on a starter – a choice that has been changed a little more than a week after it was initially made.
No starting quarterback was announced, though Stoops told the media six days before the season opener that he and Brown had settled on one.
Here’s the thing about trying to be cute: It had better work. Losing badly to Western Kentucky wouldn’t constitute as “working.”
Changing your mind on the QB1 in a pass-happy offense within the first week only furthers the trend of indecisiveness.
In the head coach’s first impression on a stage that matters, he failed. He will have 11 more opportunities this year, but Week 1 showed an offense that might have been better served with an additional two weeks of practice after the staff had gone all-in on a specific starter.
While Smith and Whitlow are getting the attention because of Stoops’ quick hook of the latter, the quarterbacks didn’t allow a Sun Belt team to score 35 points against an SEC defense.
Stoops came to Kentucky in no small part because of his defensive prowess and experience. He boasted about results at Florida State throughout the summer – and then allowed Bobby Petrino’s offense to erupt for 487 yards of total offense and more than a 10-minute time-of-possession advantage.
The start to the Stoops era hardly fulfilled the hopes of a Kentucky fan base that seemed energized by the hire.
Stoops took a step in the right direction Tuesday when he finally named, publicly, his starting quarterback – about three weeks too late.