Kentucky fans again had to watch UK lose a SEC home game last week. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky is a 24-point favorite over Eastern Michigan Saturday and a mistake here and there probably will not cost the Cats a win like those mistakes did last week against Ole Miss.
Kentucky is going to start a new quarterback — redshirt freshman Cutter Boley — after Zach Calzada struggled for two games and then was injured against Ole Miss. Kentucky coach Mark Stoops still has not confirmed Boley will start but apparently he found out earlier this week this is his chance to show what he can do.
Kentucky’s passing offense has been atrocious and ranks 122nd or worse in passing categories, including 134th out of 136 FBS teams in completion percentage and 132 overall in quarterback rating.
“We’re as frustrated as everybody is with us, and there’s no sugar coating it,” Kentucky offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan said this week after having no answers following the Ole Miss loss. “We thought we could have put up 30 plus points in that game. They’re self-inflicted wounds. We made plays. We thought we called it aggressive at times.
“It’s just the reality of the matter is, the formation mix-up we had early in the game on a 35-yard play, the halftime issue with substitutions, it’s just the self-inflicted wounds. We’re not going to recover from that. When we’re looking to be explosive, like we got to have every explosive play we can, and that cost us.”
Hamdan knows he is being widely criticized by UK fans after Kentucky’s offensive problems the last two years under him.
“We got to be at our best when our best is needed. Everybody included. It starts with me. We’ve been here before at Kentucky. I’m not sitting here under my table hiding. We got a chance to be a very good football team, a very good offense, and we got 40 guys who believe that, and that ultimately, right now, is all that matters. And we got a good opportunity this Saturday,” Hamdan said.
The UK offensive coordinator is right that the Cats have been running the ball well with Dante Dowdell and Seth McGowan.
“I think both backs have been playing at a really, really high level,” Hamdan said. “I see a team that’s come out and played their butts off at every level. We don’t have selfish guys out there. These guys are playing extremely hard. Some of the penalties have just been from a standpoint of trying to be too physical, not knowing when to let go.
“We got 45 guys that want to be great, that want to do it for this team. I don’t see a lot of selfishness. I see a football team that’s running the football extremely well.”
4 Responses
Excessive, repeated mistakes of any kind are a trademark of a lack of focus, poor preparation, and a lack of discipline…in other words bad coaching.
Barry nailed it again. The biggest self inflicted wound is the decision to make it impossible to hold Stoops accountable for his poor performance under the contract that Barnhart agreed upon
Self-inflicted wounds are not just a UK phenonium. There are a half dozen or more teams in the SEC that suffer similar play at one time or another. Florida last week, Clemson every other Saturday it seems and so on are just a few examples of self defeating play. Much of this is coaching but NIL and self-promotion is at play as well. Lets face it, kids today are entitled, jocks especially. It's our fault. We raised these kids in a permissive environment where nothing is "their" fault. That translates to a lack of self discipline and motivated focus; ie as if their next meal depended on it. I don't know why everyone expects more out of these kids. Their attitudes are a product of their raising.
Kentucky has been beating there self since 2022. It seems like every year since 2022 it's been the same thing. This is the fourth season in a row that we haven't looked disciplined. Stupid penalties on the opposite side of the field cross out large gains. Or we will get a nice gain and fumble the football. It's just over and over. Then when you have a coach playing to not lose instead of win it gets really ugly. We should have tried harder to score points before the half. Stoops was going to run the clock out until the fans started booing him. Then we went for a pass and couldnt get out of bounds. It's like bonehead play after bonehead call you get bonehead results. Then at the end of the game we go for it twice instead of taking the points. Our kicker is good from almost 60 yards. One of the field goals would have been 56 yards but I'd say he's going to make it from that distance 65% of the time. Sink that field goal before half and the 2 at the end and we are winning by 2. Or just convert one of those for a touchdown and you have overtime. We couldn't do neither ..
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