Vicky Graff Photo
It didn’t surprise me that callers to WLAP Sunday Morning Sports Talk were upset with the way Kentucky played in its 17-14 loss at South Carolina Saturday night.
However, they were not the only ones disappointed after coach Mark Stoops’ team lost for the fifth time in the last six weeks and continued to make mistake after mistake to help beat itself.
Jeff Drummond, managing editor for Cats Illustrated for Rivals.com, has covered UK football for many years. His tweet Sunday let me know just how devastating this loss and losing skid might be to the football program.
“This feels like the end of an era. Not sure there’s any way to get the fan base back after the events of the second half of this season,” Drummond posted on X.
Former Cats’ Pause publisher Oscar Combs has followed UK sports even longer than Drummond and actually gave me my first statewide byline in 1977. He’s normally the voice of reason who sees the big picture more realistically than most fans. However, his comments on X should worry the UK football program, too.
“Losing to Alabama, Georgia and Missouri is no disgrace. They are elite this year. Tennessee and South Carolina not so much. Before you blow me up, let me remind you that of UK’s 6 wins this fall, all six opponents currently own a losing record. UK has one more shot at Louisville,” Combs posted.
He’s right. Two of UK’s SEC wins are over Vanderbilt and Mississippi State, who have one SEC win each. The other SEC win is over Florida, another one of the SEC’s worst teams.
Fans are upset for good reason with the mistakes UK has made and lack of accountability Stoops has seemed to demand for those mistakes other than to say he’s “frustrated” with the losses.
‘If they played as hard as they ran their mouths UK would be ‘Bama. It’s embarrassing to be losing to crap teams and still talking trash,” UK fan Scotter Bentley posted.
“Just a friendly reminder that it isn’t the FAN BASE who constantly sets the bar at Atlanta and W’s vs UGA. It’s our 9 mill a year coach & staff, who constantly under deliver. They wanted that smoke, now they got that smoke. We are ticked. WE want answers!” Paul Fields tweeted.
Long-time UK fan Terry Hall, a former high school teammate of UK basketball All-American Mike Casey, might have said it perfectly in a message he sent me.
“I don’t think we ever did so little with so much. A growing program often experiences ebbs and flows and right now we are at low tide,” Hall said.
I tend to agree with “ever did so little with so much.” This team has way more talent than a lot of past UK teams have had. However, this team does not play with the overall intelligence or heart some UK teams did that “did more with less talent” that Kentucky fans embraced.
It certainly didn’t help Sunday when star running back Ray Davis posted this on X after getting 12 carries for 61 yards, including a 31-yard scoring run. This is the same Davis that ran for 280 yards in a win over Florida but has had a hard time breaking loose since then. His backup, Ramon Jefferson, had six carries for 50 yards against South Carolina.
“It is what it is. Thought I was the bell cow,” Davis posted on X and that’s not a message that indicates UK has a happy locker room.”
Parents of two UK players also posted comments critical of the way UK played.
It is not the kind of turmoil that Stoops has had to deal with. He won 10 games in 2018 and 2021 to raise the bar at UK and his new contract extension that pays him $9 million per year through 2031.
It also has not helped that Stoops made a huge mistake by saying UK fans needed to “pony up” more money after UK was walloped by Georgia. His theory was that Georgia had more NIL money to get better players — and that might be right — but the timing of his comment as UK was starting a 1-5 skid has not gone over well.
“I can’t stop thinking about the “Pony Up” comments. BBN showed up and supported this team every game. He (Stoops) made that smart ass comment and it backfired in his face. No amount of ‘ponying up’ can fix his God awful coaching as of late,” UK fan Megan Jameson posted on social media.
Many fans still support Stoops and what he’s done. However, this season has been a huge step back for UK following a 7-6 finish in 2022. Kentucky likely will finish 6-6 because it is a touchdown underdog at Louisville and the Cards cannot wait to beat UK.
Then a bowl game loss — and fans are not going to flock to a bowl game with the way this team has stumbled to the finish line — would leave UK 6-7 in a season where Stoops, his coaches and his players openly talked about contending for a SEC Eastern Division title.
Instead, Stoops is going to have to find a way to “pony up” himself this offseason to fix the problems and obvious disconnect the UK program now has.
3 Responses
When you pay your coach $9 million a year, you expect a 9 – 4 season with a bowl win as a minimum. Our problem will be with better teams being added to the SEC, we won’t be able to schedule as many Popcorn States and will have to play more of the better league teams. We could finish 6 – 7 this season. Next year could be a similar disappointment. I don’t see us contending for an SEC East title anytime soon, much less an SEC championship. If this is going to be an acceptable ceiling for a Stoops team, then we are paying way too much for it.
I think when you hear Cal say they need new digs for the players , a new practice facility etc , or Stoops complaining about n.i.l. money etc , although I don’t discount that . But how about controlling the things you can control speaking more lately of Stoops. N.i.l. has nothing to do with a poorly prepared team that hasn’t LEARNED a damn thing since the beginning of the season in terms of playing a disciplines game. If you know you are behind the 8 ball in comparison to the n.i.l. elite teams then you have to coach better and be very sharp.. Sharp isn’t even close to describing this football team.. It looks like they are stuck in spring practice.
You’re right Bill. This team has not gotten better, even when playing the Popcorn States.