Cats say they won’t let missed opportunity vs. Georgia define their season

Wiseacres have long joked that the University of Kentucky football program has an unofficial motto:

We Never Miss An Opportunity to Miss An Opportunity.

The 2016 Kentucky Wildcats found themselves with an improbable, program-altering opportunity Saturday night.

Earlier in the day, SEC East leader Florida took a 31-10 whipping at Arkansas.

Before an energetic, large Commonwealth Stadium crowd of 62,507, the Wildcats were playing Georgia for a chance to claim the SEC East lead.

With a Wildcats win, Kentucky — Kentucky! — would be the SEC East leader in November.

“We were aware,” UK safety Marcus McWilson said. “Some of the guys were aware of (the chance available).”

Instead, The Long Suffering UK Football Fan saw a script they’ve seen way too often.

On the game’s final play, Georgia’s Rodrigo Blankenship kicked a 25-yard field goal to give the Bulldogs (5-4, 3-4 SEC) a hard-fought 27-24 victory over Kentucky.

For the first time since Mark Stoops became UK head coach, the Wildcats lost a game that they led (21-16) entering the fourth quarter.

“It was an opportunity that was there, and we didn’t make plays,” a dejected Stoops said afterward.

There was so much opportunity available for UK.

Had UK won, the Wildcats (5-4, 4-3) would have secured their first winning mark in league games since 1977. They also would have been 5-2 in the league, and been a half-game ahead of Florida (6-2, 4-2).

Had UK won, the Wildcats would have been bowl-eligible for the first time since 2010, and the Wildcats program would have been riding a wave of recruiting momentum.

Alas, Kentucky lost in a way that will haunt. Up 21-13 in the third quarter, Kentucky quarterback Stephen Johnson hit Garrett Johnson for a 21-yard gain on a third-and-6 from the UK 17.

After a replay review, it was ruled Johnson had fumbled and Georgia recovered.

“Juice hasn’t turned the ball over, but he just got hit in a weird, awkward way,” Kentucky quarterbacks coach Darin Hinshaw said.

The plucky Kentucky defense held Georgia to a field goal, but UK’s next possession yielded an even stranger turnover.

On the same deep post pattern that Stephen Johnson and Jeff Badet hooked up on for a 75-yard touchdown last week at Missouri, the UK quarterback again threw a perfect ball that hit Badet in the hands behind the Georgia defense.

This time, Badet bobbled the ball, it popped into the air and Georgia’s Deandre Baker — beaten on the play — somehow ended up with it.

“He lost the ball in the lights. That happens to the best of us,” Kentucky wideout Dorian Baker said of Badet. “If I lose a ball in the lights, I’m going to keep running to the (spot) where the ball (is to be thrown). By Jeff being so fast, he ran through the ball and didn’t see it till the end.”

Though the UK defense forced a punt, that odd-ball play flipped momentum and kept Kentucky’s defense on the field.

That was a big factor in Georgia winning the fourth quarter 11-3 and taking the game.

Now, Kentucky must somehow regroup from a crushing defeat when so much bounty was there to be grasped and get ready for a noon kickoff at Tennessee.

Having dug themselves out of an 0-2 hole to start the season, the Cats still have a home date with winless Austin Peay (0-9) as insurance for attaining bowl eligibility.

Still, you wonder how easy it will be to shake off all that UK lost in falling to Georgia.

“It will be hard,” Kentucky running back Boom Williams said. “But in this game we play, you’ve got to move on.”

Said McWilson: “Me, being a (defensive back), I’ve always got a ‘(play the) next play’ mentality. Sure, we had that slow start (to the season), but that didn’t stop us, so why would we stop now?”

This story was originally published November 6, 2016 at 1:45 AM with the headline "Cats say they won’t let missed opportunity vs. Georgia define their season."