Mark Stoops was not going to pass on chance to score final touchdown at Georgia

UK Athletics Photo

Why did Mark Stoops call a timeout with only seven seconds to play and Kentucky trailing Georgia 30-7? Obviously, even if UK scored from the one-yard line, the Cats were not going to win the game. So why call the timeout? Was Stoops trying to send a message to his team or maybe those who vote on the national rankings?

“I do not know about a message but I wanted to score,” said Stoops. “I do not know how things will play out the rest of the year. We had an opportunity to score and we did.”

Kentucky scored on a pass from Will Levis to Wan’Dale Robinson with four seconds left — a throw that beat the Las Vegas point spread and also made UK the first team to score two offensive touchdowns against Georgia this season.

Winning coach Kirby Smart didn’t seem to have a problem with Stoops calling the timeout or UK scoring to end a 22-play, 75-yard drive.

“I respect (that), his job is to compete and score. Why not?” Smart said. “That’s what he came here to do, win the game and score points. I respect that. They had a long drive there.”

Georgia linebacker Adam Anderson didn’t act like it was a big deal, either, that UK wanted to score.

“Honestly, we treat that like anything. Even if there are four seconds left in the fourth quarter we still do not want anyone in our end zone. Honestly, it still hurts right now,” Anderson said after the game.

The flip side for Kentucky is that the 22-play drive enabled the Cats to leave Georgia with a better feeling about the offense. The score might have been manginess — or it could be big when bowl bids are handed out — for this game but it gave the offense a boost because it scored a second time against the SEC’s best defense.

“I think it definitely was a confidence booster,” Levis said. “I think that was our best drive of the game and to finish with points feels a lot better than not. We can use that as motivation that we can move the ball on a team like this and now we can come out against Mississippi State and try to get similar drives.”

I asked Stoops if the final scoring drive was good for his team’s confidence. He kind of answered in a strange way.

“I think the scoring drive in the second quarter was a good drive. It was quite a few plays, not many chunks (of yards),” Stoops said. “We were able to grind it out and drive down and score. That was a really good drive when we made it 14-7.

“We had another good drive and opportunity to score a touchdown or field goal. We have got to get that fixed (the blocked field goal). No excuses. We have had issues getting blown up there (in the middle of the blocking front). But that was a good drive. We had a few good drives in there against a very good group.”