The Kentucky Wildcats led for over 40 minutes against Alabama, but the offense never clicked. This left a lot of people questioning how far along this offense was, and how quickly Will Stein could flip the offensive success. Well, they were absolutely humming in College Station. The offense and Kenny Minchey came to play, they dominated the Aggies defense in a lot of ways.
Early on, Kentucky had an explosive opportunity on a swap dagger concept, Minchey hit Kenny Darby in stride and he dropped the touchdown pass. That second quarter drive ended in a missed field goal. It was looking similar to the Alabama game early, as the Wildcats defense was making big plays but the offense could not finish. That all changed on the second quarter drive that
would eventually tie the game 7-7 going into half.
Kentucky had a three play sequence that gave them momentum heading into halftime. The first play was a yankee concept, a deep post by the number one, combined with a deep over and dig on the left side; Minchey had his best throw as a Wildcat, hitting DJ Miller in stride on the deep post pattern for a 53-yard gain. The next play, they give tight end Mikkel Skinner a jet sweep handoff that gained 14 yards to put the Wildcats at the three yard line. Kentucky capped off the drive with a delay flat touchdown pass to tight end Henry Boyer, on a creative tackle over formation that had Boyer lined up at left tackle.
The creativity of Will Stein and Joe Sloan's offense was on display on that scoring drive, then the flood gates opened in what might be the most dominant quarter in Kentucky football history. Kentucky scored 21 unanswered points in the third quarter, gaining 10 first downs as the Aggies did not have a single first down. They opened the second half with a 7-play, 75-yard touchdown drive; followed by a 9-play, 83-yard touchdown drive and the last drive was a 4-play, 33-yard touchdown drive. The offense was controlling the line of scrimmage, staying ahead of the chains and creating explosives.
Let's give it up for quarterback Kenny Minchey, who completed 14-of-18 pass attempts for 252 yards and two touchdowns. We mentioned the Darby drop, but Skinner dropped a screen pass in the first quarter as well. When you account for those two drops, Minchey had an 89% adjusted completion percentage. He was phenomenal in this game and is the main reason Kentucky got the upset win over a top ten team on the road in front of 100,000 fans.
Kentucky's offense was clicking on all cylinders, the offensive line controlled the line of scrimmage. Kenny Darby has consistently made plays this season as a true freshman, but DJ Miller had an incredible performance with 96 yards on five receptions. The Wildcats have a thunder and lightning duo at running back that have stepped up, CJ Baxter is the thunder as he had 19 carries, 87 yards and two touchdowns. Jason Patterson looks like a different player under the new regime, he has added muscle but did not lose his explosiveness, Patterson had 58 rushing yards on just six carries which resulted in 9.7 yards per carry.
The most impressive thing from this victory was Minchey's ability to respond from a tough performance against Alabama. Kentucky's offense bounced back in a big way and showed what they are capable of. We will do the defensive review, but defensive coordinator Jay Bateman has had back-to-back impressive gameplans against explosive offenses. If the Wildcats can play with this consistency, you have to change your expectations of what this football team can be in 2026.
This article originally appeared on UK Wildcats Wire: Kentucky offense review: The offense clicked in College Station
