Kentucky’s Neal Brown Bringing the Air Raid Back to Lexington


Kentucky Football, SEC Football

Mark Zerof-USA Today Sports

When the Kentucky Wildcats hit the field on August 31 against their in-state opponent, Bobby Petrino and the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers at LP Field in Nashville, Kentucky fans might experience “Deja Blue” when they see a familiar offensive system take the field for the Wildcats in 2013.

The pass-happy “Air Raid” offensive attack that took the SEC and the rest of college football by surprise in the late 1990’s under former Wildcats head coach Hal Mumme is coming back to the commonwealth with one of its very first students, Neal Brown, in the driver’s seat.

The 33-year-old former Wildcat walk-on wide receiver and Kentucky native, Brown comes into Lexington after impressive stints as the offensive coordinator at Troy and most recently Texas Tech. Last season, the Red Raiders offense ranked second in the FBS in passing offense of 361.9 yards per game, 12th in total offense of 501.4 yards per game and 16th with an average of 37.8 points per game. The Red Raiders ranked in the top 15 in the three seasons, Brown was the playcaller in Lubbock. In 2009, Brown’s Troy Trojans offense ranked third in passing offense and fourth in total offense that season.

Brown’s high octane “Air Raid” offense, which he calls NASCAR, is a sampling of what he learned as a player under Mumme and offensive coordinator, Mike Leach at Kentucky and as coach under Tony Franklin at Troy.

The offense that Brown hopes to install in Lexington is one of the fastest paced in college football, like his Texas Tech offense who averaged 76.5 plays a game last season.

NASCAR is a passing game that looks to disguise formations, substitute handoffs for short intermediate passes to recievers and get athletes in space to make big plays downfield.

Brown will also use a solid running game, offsetting the running back in the shotgun formation with draws up the middle and screens out of the backfield.

The offense has more commitment to the running game than most octane offenses while still throwing the ball all over the yard.

This is a major hire for Mark Stoops and the direction of Kentucky’s program. By bringing in a coach that can cleverly out scheme opponents with confusing formations, may possibly allow them to compete against stout SEC defenses in the future.

This is no knock on the Wildcats program, but they have never been able to get stellar offensive recruits to that campus. With Alabama, LSUFloridaArkansas and Georgia having pro-style power-running offenses; it’s going to be hard for a program like Kentucky to compete against them. By bringing this Air Raid offense, Kentucky becomes different, like Texas A&M in that it will be hard for opponents to scheme and prepare for it each week during the season.

The Wildcats have a top-10 recruiting class lined up so far this season. And if they can recruit good skill players and showcase their talents on offense, this could put Kentucky at an advantage among SEC opponents.

Brown has a lot of work to perform in improving an offense that was 114th in total offense, 111th in passing offense and 93rd in rushing last season and a program for that matter that went 2-10, 0-8 in SEC play last season.

With a tough docket ahead of them, inexperienced players on both sides of the football and new philosophies, it will be very hard for Kentucky to compete this season.

Brown must also groom a starting quarterback in this year of transition of offensive philosophies. Max SmithJalen Whitlow and Patrick Towles are competing to start in year one of the Air Raid offense. This position will be the most important for UK going forward in the future.

Kentucky fans have to be patient on their program to adapt to this new offense, because the Wildcats program has made the first step in becoming an offensive powerhouse for years to come.

It’ll remind them of the Tim Couch days when the Cats were slinging the rock, nationally and SEC competitive and fans had a reason to be excited for football season to come around.

I wonder if Brown ever achieves Calipari status in Lexington?

 

Matt Virnig is a SEC Writer for www.RantSports.com, Follow him on Twitter @MatthewVirnig, “Like” him on Facebook, add him to your group on Google.

Be sure to check out the Rant Sports 100 in 100 Series, a preview of the top 100 College Football Teams for the 2013 Season!



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