In the game of football, it’s truly three phases: offense, defense, and special teams. Last Saturday, special teams had some highs and lows in Kentucky Football’s upset over LSU.
The highs included Brock Coffman returning a 55-yard punt to the house early in the game, which sparked the team in the second quarter. The lows came when the kicking game reared its ugly head, and Kentucky experienced not one but two missed field goals by USF transfer Adam Zouagui.
Luckily, Zouagui was gifted a third opportunity and nailed that one to tie things up at 27 and send the game into overtime.
Kentucky punter Wilson Berry made his first start for the Wildcats on Saturday against LSU. Prior to that game, the previous five starts were made by Tom O’Hara.
Berry was unexpectedly thrown into the starting role after the punting had been a roller coaster to this point, from elite punts at Texas A&M to short punts vs. other opponents. Kentucky needed more consistency, and it found that in Berry this past weekend against LSU.
“Just felt like Wilson gave us the best chance in this last game for us to have consistency,” Stein said during his Tuesday press conference.
Berry ended the game averaging 40.3 yards per punt and pinned the Tigers inside their own 20 once. He will now be the starting punter moving forward.
“I felt like it was best for our special teams unit, our punt unit, to put Wilson out there and give him an opportunity to see what he could do in a big moment,” Stein said. “Wilson will line up first again in this next game.”
As for Zouagui, he transferred in and was expected to be a kickoff specialist, and Jacob Kauwe would return to kick field goals as Kentucky’s placekicker in 2026. However, we have seen Zouagui start in every game this year, and he’s gone 8-for-11 on field goals, with some important kicks to fuel this hot start for Kentucky.
As I mentioned earlier, Saturday was, for the most part, a night to forget for Zouagui, missing two field goals in crunch time, one from 42 yards and one from 26 yards. Stein told him during the game, “You got this. You’re a baller. Remember that,” before he went out to kick a third field goal from 33 yards out with an opportunity to tie the game on the line; then he nailed it.
Now, heading into the road matchup vs. Oklahoma, Stein has elected to keep Zouagui as the starter against the Sooners.
“I don’t plan on doing anything. He’s made a 52-yarder on the road. He made a game-tying field goal in the fourth quarter against South Carolina. So, just like sometimes a quarterback misses a read on mesh, a kicker unfortunately misses those. It’s big moments. They’re points. So that’s what everybody sees,” said Stein.
Stein has shown a ton of confidence in Zougaui to this point, and said he thought he showed “a lot of resolve.” It will always be a battle as these talented specialists compete every day in practice, but this week we will see the same kicker and punter in Norman, Oklahoma, as we did against LSU.