Mark Story: Troubling questions abound about Kentucky's progress in football

American Pharoah did his part, roaring to an emphatic victory in the Breeders' Cup Classic.

By all accounts, Keeneland Race Course passed the test of playing host to the championships of Thoroughbred horse racing for the first time with aplomb.

All that was left to put a cap on a historic Lexington sports day was for Kentucky's football Wildcats to make an inspired showing against persistent nemesis Tennessee.

Well, as the 1970s rock star Meat Loaf might have put it, two out of three ain't bad.

Turning in an inept performance, Kentucky (4-4, 2-4 SEC) got rocked by Tennessee 52-21 Saturday night before a disappointed Halloween night crowd of 60,886 in Commonwealth Stadium.

"It starts with me," Kentucky Coach Mark Stoops said. "I've got to do a better job getting the team prepared, a better job getting the coaches prepared."

This was the 30th time in the past 31 football games between UK and UT that the Volunteers (4-4, 2-3) have come out on top. So if the outcome was no surprise, how the Wildcats played was alarming.

The Cats were mostly inept offensively. Some four minutes into the second quarter, UK had a grand total of 2 yards total offense.

Defensively, Kentucky was once again completely at the mercy of a dual-threat quarterback. One week after Mississippi State's Dak Prescott accounted for six touchdowns in a 42-16 shellacking of the Cats, UT's Joshua Dobbs threw for two scores and ran for two.

Dobbs likely would have done more damage had UT not been so busy running third-quarter kicks back for touchdowns. Evan Berry roared 100 yards for a TD with a kickoff; then, Cameron Sutton scooted 84 yards for a punt-return score.

"Overall execution, offensively, defensively, special teams," Stoops said. "We got whipped."

It is wise never to overreact to the outcome of one game, but troubling questions were all over the new Commonwealth Stadium late Saturday evening.

In the third year of the Stoops coaching regime, is Kentucky showing the level of improvement that should be expected?

UK quarterback Patrick Towles (16-of-33 for 184 yards with one TD and one costly pick) is still maddeningly inconsistent in games.

Against a Tennessee defense that looked dynamic and fast, the Kentucky offensive line was a sieve. The Cats gave up only two sacks, but UK linemen were repeatedly flagged for holding because they were struggling so against UT's athleticism.

Defensively, there's nothing left to say about Kentucky's struggles against quarterbacks who can both run and throw. So I will not say anything else.

After UK gave up two kick return TDs to the Vols, it's easy to second-guess Stoops' decision not to have a dedicated special teams coach this year. However, Kentucky did have a special teams coach (Craig Naivar) last year and allowed Georgia to return a kickoff and punt for scores in the same game.

Is Kentucky improving at all?

If you are using Tennessee as a benchmark, it's hard to answer that question positively. Vols Coach Butch Jones and Stoops are each in their third seasons.

Stipulated, it's easier to win in football at UT than UK. But Kentucky doesn't appear to be gaining on Tennessee at all.

Jones is 3-0 against Stoops. The past two years, the Volunteers have outscored the Wildcats 102-37.

Can UK salvage its season?

A year ago, Kentucky started 5-1, then saw its season slip away in a series of humbling blowouts — 41-3 at LSU; 63-31 to Georgia; 50-16 at Tennessee — against a back-loaded SEC schedule.

This year's schedule is friendlier on the back end, but a 4-1 UK start is again giving way to a series of non-competitive Kentucky performances.

Last week, the Wildcats surrendered 586 yards at Mississippi State. This week, UK was thoroughly outplayed by Tennessee in every phase.

In Stoops' third year, I do not think it was too much to ask to expect Kentucky to be competitive in all SEC games.

Still, the wins Kentucky needs to become bowl-eligible are available on the UK schedule.

Charlotte should be a sure victory. Games at Vanderbilt and at home against offensively challenged Louisville are "winnable."

Heck, next week at offensively stagnant Georgia should not be considered impossible — if Kentucky shows up. After the last two weeks, that's a big if.

In the meantime, how about that American Pharoah?

This story was originally published November 1, 2015 at 12:26 AM with the headline "Mark Story: Troubling questions abound about Kentucky's progress in football."