Kavosiey Smoke got an early touchdown for UK but it was not enough to avoid another disappointing loss. (UK Athletics Photo)
It was a very strange Saturday night of football at Kroger Field against Tennessee. Kentucky, with a record of 6-2 and in second place in the SEC East, was a one-point underdog to a Tennessee team that was 4-4 coming off a two-game losing streak. Kentucky was also coming off a two-game losing streak.
Kentucky, a team which had a complete defensive meltdown against Mississippi State, started the game off against the Volunteers by giving up a 75-yard touchdown on the very first offensive play of the game. And yes, giving is the appropriate term. As in a gift, something that is not earned and doesn’t have to be paid for. The UK cornerbacks just allowed the receiver to catch the ball, make one small cut and race 75 yards untouched to the end zone.
The UK defense then proceeded to give the Volunteers several more gifts during the game, including a field goal that Kentucky allowed Tennessee to score in a 15-second, 35-yard drive right before halftime. Yes, a 15-second drive right before halftime. Those three points ended up being the winning margin in a 45-42 loss by the Cats.
Or maybe it was the “pick six” that Will Levis threw to Alontae Taylor after Levis locked in on Wan’Dale Robinson and never looked away. Taylor read Levis’ eyes, jumped the route and cruised into the end zone.
But it also might have been the missed field goal by Mark Ruffalo earlier in the game or the inexplicable short kickoff to the 25-yard line that allowed Tennessee to set up shop from the 50-yard line after a nice return by the Volunteers. The loss could also be attributed to a defense that was clueless in how to stop the run or the pass. UK’s defense was torched by Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker at a 75 percent completion rate as he completed 15 of 20 passes for 315 yards while he ran for 41 more.
To say that Mark Stoops and Brad White were outcoached by Josh Heupel would be the understatement of the year. Kentucky Football had a record of 119 wins and no losses when it scored more than 41 points in a game — until Saturday night against the Volunteers. Now that record stands at 119-1.
Another record that also went by the wayside Saturday night was the total number of plays run by a Kentucky offense. The Cats ran 99 offensive plays, scored 42 points and as incredible as it seems, they still found a way to lose.
After the game UK Head Coach Mark Stoops said, “Very difficult loss. Not sure I’ve been a part of one like that. So good in so many ways and not so good on other things.” That, too, is an understatement. On a night when UK’s offense generated 612 yards on 99 plays, scored 42 points and possessed the ball on offense for 46 minutes of a 60-minute game and still lost, one has to wonder if Stoops really understands the ramifications of this loss.
It’s much more than a “very difficult loss.” It could be seen as an indictment of where the program is headed. Kentucky, after a 6-0 start, was teed up to finish the season at 11-1 before the very winnable Mississippi State game. Instead of beating the Bulldogs the UK defense decided to take the day off and allow MSU quarterback Will Rogers to complete 93 percent of his passes in route to a 31-17 win. After the game Stoops vowed that he would not put up with that type of defensive effort again and promised a sold out Kroger Field that the performance against the Volunteers would be much better this week — and the offensive effort was.
Will Levis reduced his interceptions from 3 to 1 (although that one “pick six” proved to be more than enough for the winning margin) and the offense played well enough to win, but unfortunately no one seemed to tell the defense that they were expected to improve also — or if they did the message was not received and this Kentucky team laid an egg that will go down on the long, long list of losses to the Volunteers that just seem to continue to keep on coming no matter who the coach is and who the players are.
The reason this loss is more than “very difficult ” is because most thought the culture at Kentucky was changing. I’ve heard UK coaches say, “This isn’t the same old Kentucky Football.” But is it? You’ve heard the old cliche, “if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck” and that is why the game was more than a very difficult loss. This was a season changing loss and possibly a program changing loss. Anyone that doesn’t think opposing coaches aren’t already telling UK commitments that this is still the “same old Kentucky, they find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory” is naive.
So now the coaching staff needs to go back to practice and find out if the players still have enough left in the tank to finish out the season with wins against Vanderbilt on the road, New Mexico State at home and then the seasonender against Louisville on the road.
If they can win all three games they could still salvage the season that could have been an extraordinary year, and a big step forward, to potentially make it not so much of a step backward. But if they can’t and end up losing another game on the schedule I can guarantee that anyone that is familiar with UK Football will continue to say “same old UK, nothing has changed” and it may be hard to disagree.
I know that Mississippi State and Tennessee fans are already saying that.
5 Responses
I couldn’t believe some of decisions the coaching staff made in this game. I agree. Why do you not kick the ball to the end zone. UT did everytime. We had 0 returns. They had 2 that gave them ball at midfield. Easy scores came shortly thereafter. How exactly do you play defense that poorly on the first play of the game? How does Square wind up guarding their best receiver coming out of time out? How come we continually mismanage the clock at the end of the half and game? Why did you not punt at midfield on 4th and 8 only down 3? Help the defense out a little. They kind of needed some. He hung them out to dry there. Why run the ball twice on the last drive at midfield and put Levis in a difficult 3rd and 8? We knew the blitz was coming then. The short mid range passing game was doing just fine. Weird decisions. I left the game very frustrated to say the least. We have now lost close games in Lexington to UT in ’07, 09, 19 and 21. Hard to keep swallowing that same bitter pill. Worn out recording. Rinse, Repeat.
Tough loss, but this is not the same old Kentucky, and I have been a UK football fan for over 50 years. To even think such a thing is a bit silly, and over reacting. For one thing, UK has better athletes now than they have ever had IMO, but many are banged up and hurt. This is not the same defense UK started the season with, The injury bug has depleted that unit big time, no excuse, just fact. What UK needs to do is keep recruiting and reloading every year. The SEC in general, and Tennessee in particular, have more depth and more athletes, more 4 star and 5 star, than UK. Georgia and Mississippi State, same story. That has to change, and Coach is doing a pretty fair job in trying to fix that. UK just needs more quality players. Better players make a lot of coaches look real good.
The young men on the UK defense played hard, for the most part, but UT had players on the field that UK could not cover at the WR position. A blind man could see that. By the way, not a whole lot of good defense was played by either team.
The failure by the official in not calling the face mask violation on Levis was a big factor that nobody seems to want to talk about. The timing on that missed call hurt a promising UK drive. Yeah, I know UK made a nice play on 4th and 24 after that, but that missed call changed the momentum in that football game. They had a tired UT defense on their heels. A first down after the penalty would have set UK up to close it out. The official also missed another call at the boundary where the UT receiver’s knee was down short of the spot, and that hurt UK’s effort early on. Calls on plays like that interrupt the momentum for a depleted defense like UK. Stoops said the right thing though, he said you just have to overcome bad calls. He is right. So recruit better players than your opposition and make more than your fair share of "one on one" plays.
UK was still in this game to the end, they just had no answer for the Tennessee big play offense and came up short. Levis and company took the battle to Tennessee. So, I will gladly take this era of UK football over most of their past history. UK has already beaten some of the so called "cream of the crop" teams in the SEC this year, remember that! They also kicked UT’s A$$ in Knoxville last year! Plus, Tennessee cheats, we all know it. NCAA violations abound. Also, turn you eyes toward Gainesville about now, UK is in far better shape than that team, seems to me. I agree UK could sure make this a very good season by winning these last three. Go Cats!!!
By the way, UK….bowl eligible in 2021, and for several years in a row now. I can remember when that was only a dream for us football fans.
This is not the first time KY has made an average QB look like a Heisman winner. We need to watch this TN / Georgia game this weekend. We can then measure how far we have progressed to otherwise. A&M told us something about MS state and I have a feeling that GA is going to tell us something about TN.
It’s not the same old KY football. We have made improvements. We are going to and winning bowl games. We still have a very long way to go before we can say we have joined the SEC elite. That would require winning an East Division title at least 2 years out of 10 and an SEC title at least 1 year out of 10. It would also require being a No. 2 East Division finisher at least 3 years out of 10. We are not close to being in those accomplishments.
Mississippi St. showed that we have no clue as how to defend an uptempo offense. Give Tennessee credit for exploiting that same weakness. We were outplayed and outcoached in both of those losses. Yes, we beat Florida and LSU in a down year for both teams; then we lose to 2 teams we were favored to beat. We are competitive with Missouri and have put South Carolina in the same category as Vanderbilt. At best, we are still a 3 loss East Division team this year. The next step is to get that to a 2 loss SEC record.
So NO, we are not the same old KY football, but we still have a long way to go.
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