Vicky Graff Photo
Kentucky’s 30-23 loss to Ole Miss on Saturday was not atrocious, but the clock management in the first half might haunt Kentucky coach Mark Stoops for a while.
“It just does not look like a well-coached football team in terms of the management of the operation,” ABC-TV announcer Sean McDonough said as he watched UK look totally out of sync at times in the first half.
“They do a lot of things really well. They obviously play great defense. They coach great defense. But the offense and the game management is an issue, at least recently,” McDonough said.
ABC-TV analyst Greg McElroy, a former Alabama quarterback, pointed out that Stops was getting on his assistants when Uk wasted a chance for at least a field goal late in the first half.
“He is lighting up members of his offensive staff,” McElroy said. “I mean, he should be, because he’s not the one calling the plays, calling the formations. That’s coming from Bush Hamdan, the offensive coordinator, the rest of the offensive staff. That’s on the offense.”
With :08 left in the half, Kentucky quarterback Zach Calzada ran out of bounds for a 5-yard loss after Kentucky got the ball on the Ole Miss 40-yard line.
“Doesn’t somebody have to say in his headset, ‘Okay, we don’t have another timeout. We can’t run a play in bounds. Just throw the ball, take a snap, throw it out of bounds, and we’ll kick a field goal,’” McDonough said.
However, this comment by McDonough emphasizes the frustration many UK fans have had with Stoops over the last few years.
“We just chronicled Mark Stoops’ tenure. [How it has] Turned south the last couple years, but these are the kinds of things that if you are on the hot seat, get you fired,” McDonough said. “It just does not look like a well-coached football team.”
If that wasn’t enough, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said in his halftime interview on national television that UK’s offense was “pretty much one-dimensional.”
Stoops admitted after the game that there were a lot of negatives to get fixed and cleaned up.
“Quite frankly, some of them are inexcusable,” Stoops said.
Stoops was asked about the organizational issues Kentucky had way too often in the first half that led to the offense looking discombobulated.
“It was really inexcusable to be totally honest with you. There are things where we are trying to get the best personnel we can with certain plays and certain things. We’ve got to be better. We’ve just got to function better,” Stoops said.
“There were issues that we thought we had with our communication on the sideline and with the quarterback here and there with the communication device. But there is no excuse for it. Not all of it. That’s on us. Put it all together, and it was messy.
“Operationally, we have been very smooth. I think we are trying to do too much with matching personnel and changing some people out. We talked about that at halftime. Cleaned that up. It really pissed me off, and we had a discussion with the offensive staff and got that rectified.”
10 Responses
One would hope that a QB in his 7th (yes Virginia, I said 7th) year in college football would know how to manage a college football offense.
One would hope that an experienced OC would know how to teach a QB, whether in his first year, or 7th year, how to manage a football game.
One would hope that an experienced head coach would allow his OC to actually coordinate the offense, but no way this head coach has ever done that.
To Stoops, the offense is an entity that he wants to stifle, whether it is his own offense or that of the opponent. He has said so and told us all about his disdain for powerful offense, when he complained that a previous OC's team was scoring too quickly, and causing his defense to return to the field too quickly.
Stoops needs to go. He needs to go now.
If Barnhart does not pull the trigger now, he must also go NOW!!!!
The losing will continue. UK may not win a SEC game this season.
lot of good points Professor
UK would need to use Mitch’s salary for 25 years to pay Stoops off. I give Cal credit for doing the honorable, less financially crippling thing to his employer.
Not sure Cal meant to do it but worked out well for Cats
Cal had a school that wanted him.
Stoops doesn't.
Good point.
I absolutely cannot believe it was as close as it was. Should Ole Miss had a more seasoned qb it would have been far worse. UK needs to just pay this guy off. Someone on "x" tweeted UK player or players talking to girls in the crowd behind bench. Do you need a team of 5 star players to execute basic fundamentals? I'm all over the map but dang the ineptitude gets old.
The game really wasn't as close as score indicates. I, for one, couldn't wait to get it over with bc outcome determined earlier with OC/QB both leaving a lot to be desired. I am sure Hamdan real happy with the correct statement Kiffin made about being one-dimensional offense.
Forget it. We're stuck with Stoops (and Barnhart too for that matter). If it were not for two very nice interceptions, the end game score would have been much worse. In my 77 years I have never become aware of a person as stubborn as Coach Stoops. Staying with the same game philosophy (which has been shown not to work) year in and year out while the rest of the league adjusts and changes with the times is just mind cringing. No one is that unintelligent.
Stop it just stop it u all sound like little kids bickering complaining and nagging I watch the same game hell I watched every game since 80'Stoop's is not the problem yes he's not perfect none of us are instead of all this drama soap opera stuff is what hurting the team i think he's trying to hard to make us the UK fan happy that's why he is going for it on 4th down instead of kicking field goals twice how hard would it be if 100 thousand all in your business and doing and saying the things you'll are I know I couldn't do my job or take care of my family or team could you I know he needs to relinquish control of the offense but its hard cause his job is on the line and that's also why he needs to. An now back to the game nobody I mean nobody talking about the no call pass interference that happened but we are Kentucky football team I see it these no calls year after year after year do u think they miss that call if it was Ohio St or Texas especially on there home field heads would row but we're Kentucky bet the ref did not get in trouble probably got a high five that's y we didn't win so let's us not splinter this team like we did last years team we got a pretty good team let's support them and pick them up like if your kid fell off a bike we're better then this GO BIG BLUE GO BIG BLUE!!!
Comments are closed.