Kentucky celebrated when quarterback JQ Hardaway (6) got a first-quarter interception Saturday. (Vicky Graff Photo)
What do you ask a coach after his team suffered another frustrating home loss and got pummeled the last three quarters of the 24-10 loss?
That was the dilemma UK Radio Network play-by-play announcer Tom Leach faced with Kentucky coach Mark Stoops after Saturday night’s loss to underdog Auburn.
So Leach took the best approach by just asking Stoops how he felt about the game.
“There is going to be a lot of frustration. Our players work hard and they are going to be frustrated. The only thing we can do is go back to work and take ownership of things you can improve on,” Stoops said.
“It starts with me and my staff to try and get our players in a better position and play at a higher level and we are not doing that right now. It is a tough feeling. I have not had this feeling in a long time.
“I understand the frustration of fans. People come to support us and we can’t play any better. That is frustrating.”
He’s right. It is frustrating for fans. Just check any social media timeline. He’s also right that for whatever reasons, the coaches are not getting the players to play at a “higher level” that was expected this season.
“We’ve got to look at what we are doing. We got to look at how we are playing. We got to look at all options. You can’t point fingers. We’ve got to find some solutions, clearly. It’s very frustrating,” Stoops said at his postgame press conference. “There’s no excuses. There’s nothing I’m going to say that’s the right answer. We’ve got to do a better job. Right?”
Correct. Kentucky needs to do a much better job overall but it might be too late with the Cats now 3-5 and road games left at Tennessee and Texas, two likely playoff teams.
Stoops did his best to downplay the switch from Brock Vandagriff to Gavin Wimsatt at quarterback in the second half. Vandagriff led two scoring drives to open the game and then the offense went flat. Vandagriff was 9-for-17 passing for 120 yards with one interception in the first half. Wimsatt was 3-for-10 for 34 yards passing with one interception. Vandagriff lost 11 yards on three runs and Wimsatt gained 16 yards on 10 carries.
Stoops said UK’s offensive issues in the second half were not just on Wimsatt.
“It’s what was out there. Did he miss anything? In real time it was just a tough frustrating game. So, we will look at the film and see,” Stoops said.
Will Stoops throw the stating quarterback job open for the next game at Tennessee?
“I don’t want any headlines on that. Gavin has been playing all year. We had – we planned on putting him in the third series of the game. But we moved the ball very well in the first two. Right? So. If I put him in in the first series of the game, but in hindsight it would have ran out anyway but you’d be asking me why in the world did I take him out when we were moving the ball,” the UK coach said.
“You know what I’m saying? I think we judge that and say we are moving the ball pretty good, let’s stick with what is going right. We went three and out and you know, that’s it.”
Stoops said it was not any one person alone causing UK’s issues.
“If it is Gavin or if it’s Brock, whoever it is. They can only do so much. It is a team effort,” Stoops said. “I know everybody likes to concentrate on the quarterback position. And I know it’s a story. Bottom line is we are not playing winning football on the offensive side. And I would rather that be the headline than on any one person.”
Did Stoops consider going back to Vandagriff in the second half (Wimsatt’s best drive was a 66-yard march on UK’s last series that ended with an interception)?
“Really, there was not a lot of possession in the way they were moving the ball. We were not moving it very well; it went relatively fast,” Stoops said. “I think at that point we did get it down to the two and once again we can’t punch it in. We got an opportunity there to cut it to a one score game. And we failed.”
Kentucky has failed a lot this season but Stoops knows there is no easy fix.
“I really don’t have much to say. You know, just hit the repeat button. I think you all get tired of hearing the same thing. It’s more of the same. They need to finish drives, they need to get to the end zone. They need to play better in each phase of the game,” he said. “Just got beat. Bottom line, we got beat. We didn’t play good enough in any phase to win and that’s discouraging.”
6 Responses
Defensive secondary looked confused and slow all night. The D Line looked gassed by the second quarter.
The UK secondary coach must be as clueless about D as Stoops & the OC are about Offense.
I don’t know if the DL was gassed or just simply QUIT out of disgust – there are some deep underlying issues within the locker room and the frustration is being expressed game after game.
We have 4 games left of which we will most likely lose 3 of them for a 4 – 8 season. I don’t know which team is more pathetic…Kentucky Wildcats or the Tennessee Titans. I think we can safely say that transfer portal quarterbacks are not the answer. Neither are transfer portal offensive linemen. We need a coaching staff that can recruit top tier high school talent and then develop them into top tier college players. Stoops recruiting has dropped off with the portal not delivering either. I think Stoops has reached his ceiling here at Kentucky. For $9 million, I would think that we could do better.
I would play all the 4* freshman and bench all the 6th and 7th and 5th year seniors. If I’m going to lose I’m going to at least lose while making all the underclassmen better for next year. We have to be the most unconditioned team I’ve ever seen. The players on the offensive line look so slow moving around. I would play Wood and Farmer and Burton and Ray and someone else who will be a factor on the line next year. I would play the 2 freshman running backs. I would also start Cutter Boley. Let me ask y’all this why not play Beau Allen at this point. He can’t be that much worse than Brock or Gavin? We need a spark and Gavin or Brock will not be the man for the job. If that’s the quarterback competition for next year expect much of the same. They are both in there 4th year of college if they haven’t got it yet. Then they are not going to ever get it. I see why we recruited Gavin now because ol Brock is a scatter brain. He looks like his mind is moving a million miles a second. He looks like a deer in the headlights at times. Gavin isn’t any better. Why not play for the future and get Cutter some more time. I would play him at least a quarter for 3 games and keep his redshirt. Chip will be keeping his red shirt but do we really want him again next year at this point? Players are getting paid now and instead of basically being broke working to make money. It seems like they are comfortable with that 200,000$ or 300,000$ whatever they gave Brock to come here. He just don’t have it. Vanderbilts quarterback has it. He’s a winner. Some quarterbacks are winners some are losers. I definitely wouldn’t have a plan to start Brock again next year. They need to look for someone better to be a better leader. He even said he wasnt the loud leader type in the locker room. We need changes across the board the defense is wore out too. The offense doesn’t stay on the field long enough for the defense to rest. I would also start all the 4* freshman we have on defense. The last 4 games. We need to work on being better next year and it starts right now. These guys needs reps because we are losing a ton of players off this team. I think some of the younger guys will transfer. I know Wilcox will transfer. I wonder if Patterson will if Chip comes back. I would rather have Patterson for 4 years than Chip for a couple of games.
I hear others saying the same thing Terry
Is there anyway we can take Stoops 9 million, hire a up and comer for 1 million (he couldn’t coach any worse), and give the other 8 million to NIL?