Quarterback Will Levis and Kentucky football fans had one thing in common Saturday night — they were all disappointed with the way UK played in the second half of a 34-17 win at Vanderbilt.
Levis said he missed throws he usually doesn’t miss the second half after he had led UK to touchdown drives on its first four possessions in the first half and 31 points by halftime.
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said his team played “very good complementary football” the first half — the best it had played all season — when the defense shut down Vandy and the offense got star production from Levis, receiver Wan’Dale Robinson, and running back Chris Rodriguez.
“The second half we got out of kilter,” Stoops said.
He blamed the defense for allowing touchdown drives of 75 and 72 yards after Vanderbilt switched to quarterback Mike Wright.
“The second half I wish we could have got some better stops defensively. I felt like we could have been in a better attack mode the second half if we had played better defense,” Stoops said.
Stoops, as he is prone to do, might have got a little conservative in the second half. Vanderbilt was not getting “chunk” plays and with a 31-3 lead the Cats did not feel like they were ever going to lose.
“But I would have liked to get a few stops so we could have turned the offense loose to build the confidence of our whole team,” Stoops said.
Kentucky had lost three straight games and became only the second SEC team — South Carolina was the first one — not to score at least 37 points against Vanderbilt. But Stoops knew his team let down the second half.
“We are not good enough to not play 100 percent with our hair on fire and playing electric,” Stoops said. “That is aggravating.”
Still, Kentucky is now 7-3 and has a chance to become just the third UK team with eight or more regular-season wins since 1977. The Cats also finished 5-3 in SEC play — only the second time since 1977 UK has been above .500 in conference play. It also guaranteed UK would finish second in the SEC East.
And for Stoops, a seventh win automatically gives him a one-year contract extension through June 30, 2027, and he will make $6.5 million in the additional year with $4.875 million guaranteed.
“We don’t want to be satisfied,” senior defensive lineman Josh Paschal said. “We want to win every game. We had not won in a month. We were ready to get a win.”
6 Responses
Another good chance to give Allen some playing time and Stoops passes it up.
Why would anyone ever want to be a backup QB at UK under Stoops? You never get any meaningful snaps to help you prepare and if at all possible they will take a transfer over you because they have meaningful prep time on the field.
Would really be surprised if Allen is still around this time next year, and who could blame him?
If you want to start at QB for UK, go somewhere else first.
Can’t think of a single high school QB that Stoops has brought in and prepared him to take over unless it would be Drew Barker.
No other QB has been recruited by Stoops and stuck around long enough to take over because he never develops them.
Amen oldFan, as many quaterbacks that has transfer under Stools you think he need to change his thinking about playing the backups.
He has lost a lot of what could have turned out to be good ones.
You’re right OldFan. I’ve griped about this for a long time but it’s just like Stoops griping to the SEC office about the officiating – nothing happens. One of these days Stoops is going to need a back up and he won’t have one with any meaningful experience to use. I think he gets tunnel vision and thinks it won’t happen to him..
I’m not going to grip about the defense as is my usual theme on here. Lets just say a win is a win and move on. That said, we watched a sick (flu) Vandy team mount two long scoring drives against a healthy UK defense. You just have to shake your head. If you watched the GA – TN game we got to see what it took to beat TN – pressure on the QB. Hooker folded like wet pasta. Something we didn’t do. Take note UK.
It is almost like Stoops is trying to build in his excuse if his starter goes down. If the backup never sees the field, he can claim no experience. Don’t blame me.
He is not giving good HS qb’s a reason to come to UK. Why would they???
Allen should have been inserted in the second half when Levis struggled. If UK plays these next two games like they played in the second half against Vandy it could be a long day for them, especially against Louisville. They are waiting in the bushes for UK. White’s defense has forgot how to tackle. I think UK had better wake up and figure this out quick. They stunk the second half in Nashville.