SEC Photo
How many times do you hear coaches say that players have to be accountable for their actions? Obviously we hear it all the time. In my book, the same goes for coaches and give Kentucky coach Mark Stoops credit for doing exactly that Monday.
After the blown non-touchdown call by officials Saturday at Auburn, Kentucky still had two chances to score from the 1-yard line and take a 14-8 halftime lead. Instead, quarterback Terry Wilson got stopped for no gain on a quarterback sneak and then threw an interception on the next play.
At worst a field goal would ave given UK a 10-8 halftime lead over No. 7 Auburn and the ball back to start the second half.
Kentucky is supposed to have not only one of the best offensive lines in the SEC, but in the country, with four returning starters and three of the top seven-rated linemen in the conference.
So why not just pound the ball away on two running plays with UK’s strongest running back after the officials blew the touchdown call?
“That was my call,” Stoops said about the third-down pass play that turned into an interception. “In hindsight, I would do it different.”
Stoops liked the option of Wilson being able to run or throw on that third down rollout. What we didn’t know was that Wilson made the right read to throw the ball to the back open out of the backfield but a UK receiver ran the wrong route to bring the defensive back into play who made the interception.
“There was a mess-up with the receiver on that play,” Stoops said. “The back was open. Terry was throwing to an open receiver the body there should not have been. That hurts because everybody sees him throw the interception but we brought another body to the party that should not have been there.”
Stoops explained that he felt if UK had run the ball on third down and got stopped it would have been difficult — but not impossible — to get the offense off the field and the field goal unit on in time to make the kick with UK out of timeouts.
“In hindsight, that’s what I should have done,” Stoops said.
So Stoops says it was his play call, not one called by Eddie Gran, and that Wilson made the right read but a receiver out of place brought the defender in that made the interception. That changes the blame for everything about that fatal play.
Now Kentucky has to move on — something I am not sure it did well after the officials didn’t give UK the touchdown Saturday — and get ready for Mississippi this week.
“When you are a better football team you can overcome mess-ups,” Stoops said. “There is a lot going on. Things are not normal. You have to be able to overcome that. Overcoming adversity you see each game. We are all dealing with issues right now. We better make some improvement between week one and week two or it will be the same result.”
