Tom Hart Knew This Wasn’t the Most Talented Team Mark Stoops has had at UK

Remember before the season started and many thought this might be Mark Stoops’ most talented team overall at Kentucky?

It has not turned out that way on either side of the football.

“I think sometimes we get stuck looking at talent mostly from a skilled player standpoint,” said ESPN/SEC Network play-by-play voice Tom Hart. “That team with Benny Snell in 2018 was not only good on offense but had Josh Allen and Mike Edwards on defense. To me, that was his most talented team by far.”

All three of those players played in the NFL and both Allen and Edwards are still active. Several other players of that team also made NFL rosters.

Kentucky is 5-2 going into Saturday night’s home game with No. 21 Tennessee but had allowed 89 points the previous two games in lopsided losses to No. 1 Georgia and No. 16 Georgia.

“From the quarterback standpoint, it has to start there in college football,” Hart said. “Devin Leary and his receivers have not been reliable enough to take advantage of the talent they have. The receivers have a great upside and are very talented but they have to catch the football.

“Suffice it to say when that receiving duo (Barion Brown and Dane Key) showed great promise last year and the immediacy of the program was in their hands you can’t be in the bottom fifth percentile in the entire country in drops.”

Hart called the UK-Missouri game when the Cats roared out to a 14-0 lead only to lose 38-21. He revealed that Stoops was so upset with his team that week he had stormed off the field after he ended Tuesday’s practice.

“That is rare for him to do something like that but he was not happy with their focus,” Hart said. “I was at practice Thursday and everything looked good. He said Wednesday that week was the best practice they had had in terms of throwing and catching the ball.

“When I was there Brown and Key were going up and making incredible catches so it was a bit of a surprise considering the drops they’ve had. But I have always thought catching or not catching was contagious and too often this year Kentucky just has not been catching the ball.”