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Oct 9, 2021; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; The Kentucky Wildcats offense lines up against the LSU Tigers defense during the second quarter at Kroger Field. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images
It’s been said that football games are won in the trenches.
Will Stein, Kentucky’s first-year head coach, grew up around the Wildcats football program and knows the Big Blue Wall well. He’s also carrying on the legacy of an offensive line coach who took Kentucky’s offensive line to unprecedented heights for eight seasons.
John Schlarman was Kentucky’s offensive line coach for Mark Stoops’s first eight seasons. A First-Team All-SEC offensive lineman in 1997. Schlarman started along Kentucky’s offensive line for all four seasons.
From 2016-2019, Kentucky broke numerous school records, including single-season records for most rushing yards, most rushing touchdowns and most rushing yards per attempt. In 2016 and 2019, Schlarman’s offensive line was a semifinalist for the Joe Moore Award given to the nation’s top offensive line.
“The legacy of Coach Schlarman, what he was able to do as a player and a coach at Kentucky, is on our walls in our building,” Stein said at SEC Media Days in Tampa, Florida on Monday. “And so to be able to run the football when it matters in November, when games are of the utmost importance, you have to have an offensive line”
Stein knows what is going to win games at Kentucky. It’s going to be whether the Wildcats can be driven through their offensive line.
“This group in particular is as talented as I’ve been around,” Stein said. “The Big Blue Wall is something that is talked about constantly within our program.”
Look no further than CBS Sports’ recent ranking of the best offensive lines in college football, where Kentucky checked in at No. 3 in the nation. If it can perform at that kind of level, it could be a fun November when the weather is cold, the conditions are worse, and running the ball behind a great offensive line can be a game-changer.
Kentucky will play four games in November: at Tennessee, vs. Florida, at Missouri, and vs. Louisville. Running the football will be paramount in all of those games.
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