A second guess of late UK play calling vs. Georgia that isn’t fair

Quick hitters from the line at your polling place:

21. Benny Snell. Heard some second-guessing of Kentucky for having its star freshman running back carry twice (for two yards) from the Wildcat formation after the Cats had 1st-and-goal at the Georgia 9-yard-line trailing 24-21 late Saturday night.

20. UK football history. If your memory of controversial late-game Kentucky play calling is long enough, there was a certain irony to questions about UK’s strategy.

19. Mark Higgs vs. Tennessee, 1987. Down 24-20, UK had 1st-and-goal at the UT 5. Kentucky ran Higgs — its best offensive playmaker — four straight times but never dented the goal line and lost.

18. The popular second guess. The common lament was that Kentucky should have shown more imagination.

17. Randall Cobb vs. Tennessee, 2009. Down 24-21, Cobb — Kentucky’s best offensive playmaker — carried four straight times from the Tennessee 37-yard line to the 10. He never touched the ball again. The Cats settled for a tying field goal, then lost in overtime.

16. The popular second guess. The common lament was that Kentucky should have had the ball in the hands of its best player with the game on the line.

15. Benny Snell vs. Georgia, 2016. If you were among those upset when Kentucky did not have Cobb carry the ball late in that 2009 Tennessee game, then you can’t second guess UK putting the game in the hands of the punishing Snell this year.

14. The coach’s life. When coaching strategies are evaluated, judgments are all but exclusively dependent on outcome.

13. Kentucky football fans. The atmosphere for Georgia was electric. The large crowd (62,507) showed that Cats backers will still fill up Commonwealth Stadium when the football program gives them legitimate excitement.

12. Kentucky vs. Asbury. I doubt that John Calipari’s Wildcats got much out of their 156-63 pummeling of Asbury on Sunday night. I respect UK for giving in-state, small colleges a chance to experience playing in Rupp Arena in exhibitions.

11. Spreading it around. Since Calipari came to UK in 2009-10, Kentucky has played Transylvania (three times), Pikeville (twice), Campbellsville, Georgetown, Kentucky State and Asbury.

10. Sentimental ties. The Cats have also faced Clarion, Calipari’s alma mater, twice and played exhibitions against the alma maters of both UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart (Ottawa) and Deputy Director of Athletics DeWayne Peevy (Montevallo).

9. In case you are wondering. Rounding out the list of Calipari-era UK exhibition opponents were Dillard, which was then coached by ex-UK player Dale Brown; Northwood, Fla., coached by ex-Villanova head man Rollie Massimino; and Morehouse.

8. Matthew Mitchell’s recruiting. After The Great Player Exodus of 2015-16, many wondered how the Kentucky women’s basketball coach would fare in recruiting. For the class of 2017, the answer appears to be fairly well.

7. A comparison. According to ProspectsNation.com, the four high school players presently committed to UK for 2017 — Keke McKinney (No. 62); Tatyana Wyatt (No. 63); Dorie Harrison (No. 78) and Kameron Roach (No. 87) — are ranked higher than the two ’17 players — Lindsey Duvall (No. 93) and Madison Treece (No. 137) — who decommitted from Kentucky last summer.

6. Kameron Roach. UK Hoops backers should feel a special affinity for Roach, a point guard from Columbia, S.C. Of the six high school players — three in the class of 2016; three in 2017 — who were committed to Kentucky last school year, the 5-foot-6 Roach is the only one who stuck it out.

5. Mitch Barnhart. With the ascension of former Kentucky baseball coach John Cohen to Mississippi State athletics director, there are now five power five conference ADs who previously worked for Barnhart at UK.

4. The ‘Mitch Barnhart AD tree.’ The athletics directors at Florida (Scott Stricklin), Minnesota (Mark Coyle), Arizona (Greg Byrne) and Oregon (Rob Mullens) also worked for Barnhart in Lexington.

3. Ken-jah Bosley. Now a senior guard at Kentucky Wesleyan, the ex-Madison Central star lit up Diddle Arena for 42 points Saturday in a 103-97 double-overtime exhibition loss to Western Kentucky.

2. Bill Keightley. The late Kentucky men’s basketball equipment manager would have loved Eastern Kentucky’s 83-71 exhibition win over Georgetown College on Sunday. Both head coaches, EKU’s Dan McHale and Georgetown’s Chris Briggs, were UK student managers under Keightley.

1. One wild guess. Kentucky will go to the Belk Bowl in Charlotte (Dec. 29 at 5:30 p.m.) and face Pittsburgh.

This story was originally published November 7, 2016 at 6:50 PM with the headline "A second guess of late UK play calling vs. Georgia that isn’t fair."