With a loss in season opener, Kentucky’s next two games become much more important
READ MORE
Game day: Kentucky at Auburn
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Auburn football game at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala.
Expand All
Kentucky went to Auburn to kick off its 2020 season and left with a 29-13 loss to show for its effort. It is now 6-27-1 all time against the Tigers.
What does Saturday’s result mean for Wildcats moving forward?
Where’s the signature win?
Saturday’s outcome shouldn’t harm UK’s outlook long-term, but it does make projecting a “signature” win for the Wildcats much more difficult.
Auburn checked a lot of boxes that made it ripe for picking off: it was a season opener, giving UK’s staff plenty of time to prepare; it replaced a ton of starters across the offensive and defensive lines while the Cats trotted out veterans with multiple years worth of starts under their belts; entering as a 7.5-point underdog, Kentucky came in with an always-coveted chip on its shoulder while for Auburn, a perennial contender for top-10 status, it was business as usual. One even could have suggested that the Tigers might be looking forward to another juggernaut, Georgia, in week two.
Four other teams currently ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 are on UK’s schedule: Alabama, Georgia, Florida and Tennessee. Let’s chalk up ‘Bama and Georgia, the reigning SEC division titlists, as defeats. Let’s do the same for Florida, the most popular pick to win the East this year, since that one’s on the road late in the season.
That leaves the Volunteers, whose program Kentucky is most akin to, as far as recent history goes, but against whom good UK teams have still struggled to earn victories. The 2018 squad, Stoops’ best so far, got embarrassed in Knoxville. Last year’s Cats failed to hold a halftime lead and squandered a red-zone opportunity with 1:17 to play in a 17-13 loss. Kentucky should have made up ground against Tennessee in its rivalry over the last decade, but didn’t.
UT casts a big shadow over UK, still, and it’s probably the Cats’ best shot left at a “major” victory this season. They go to Knoxville in three weeks.
Hangover
Kentucky can’t let one loss turn into two, as it’s done in each of the last two seasons (see: that UT debacle in 2018, which came after a bout with Georgia, and a depressing performance at South Carolina last year after losing to Mississippi State).
The track record isn’t ideal: UK in each season under Stoops has lost consecutive games at least once during the year, and the last time it lost a season opener (2016 to Southern Mississippi at home) the next week was even uglier (a 45-7 loss at Florida). Kentucky will have home-field advantage — whatever that means in 2020 — on its side next Saturday against Mississippi, and should be favored against the Rebels, but Lane Kiffin isn’t a stranger to the SEC and will see to it that his guys are revved up to play spoiler in the same way Kentucky had a chance to be one this week.
Remain calm
Fans were primed for a victory. Many in the media, locally and nationally, pegged UK as an upset specialist. It didn’t pan out that way, and that’s OK.
It’d have been a different story had the Cats went down to Alabama and laid an egg, but that was almost certainly never going to be the case. For the most part, especially over the last few seasons, Mark Stoops-led teams have went toe-to-toe with most opponents in the Southeastern Conference when at full strength (barring some exceptions, of course, like the aforementioned showing at UT in 2018).
Auburn is a tradition-rich juggernaut. Kentucky, while on an upward trajectory, isn’t. Sometimes it’s as simple as that. Be disappointed — this was a winnable game, and a certain call by the officials didn’t help that cause — but don’t let it sour you; there’s a lot of football ahead (COVID-19 permitting).
Next game
Ole Miss at Kentucky
When: 4 p.m. Saturday
Where: Kroger Field (limited spectators)
TV: SEC Network
Records: Ole Miss 0-1, Kentucky 0-1
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Series: Ole Miss leads 28-14-1
Last meeting: Ole Miss won 37-34 on Nov. 4, 2017, in Lexington.
This story was originally published September 26, 2020 at 3:20 PM.
