UK football mailbag: Was it wrong to get our hopes up for this year’s Wildcats?
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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.
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Kentucky didn’t leave Auburn with the result it, or fans, wanted. A battle between 0-1 teams in the Southeastern Conference is forthcoming at Kroger Field, and the Cats need to be on the better end of that one.
Welcome to our weekly mailbag addressing your questions about the game behind us, the game in front of us, and anything else related to (and maybe even a couple things unrelated to) UK football that come to mind each week. As the season rolls along, please direct your questions to me on Twitter (@JoshMooreHL) or email them to jmoore@herald-leader.com.
Let’s go!
(Note: Some questions edited for clarity).
I’ll address the second question with some of my own: How many mirrors have you broken? Walked under a ladder lately? Crossed paths with any black cats?
All karmic superstitions aside (black cats are awesome, and y’all should totally adopt one if you can), there’s no doubt being a Kentucky football fan has been a harrowing experience for the lifetime of many. Unless you were born in the last 10-15 years, the challenging still much too often has outweighed the thrilling.
There were times in the past where hope for a great Kentucky team was misplaced. Fans pinned big expectations on teams that, if everything went their way over the course of the season, at best might reach bowl eligibility. I don’t think that applies as of now in the Mark Stoops era, particularly with this team.
I thought UK’s experience and ability to control the line of scrimmage would allow it to upend Auburn. If not for a tragic call by the officials and three turnovers, I think I would have been right. If Kentucky is going to be one of the “big boys” in the SEC, those types of mistakes can’t happen — or if they do, they have to be made up for quickly — and Saturday’s effort was a reminder that for as far as the Cats have come, there’s still work to be done.
They’re much closer than they used to be, though, so don’t get too down on ‘em just yet. There are fewer games, but given the quality of opponents, it’s never felt more fitting to say, “it’s a long season.”
I don’t think this would even have been a talking point after the game had Max Duffy decided to punt instead of run on what, in hindsight, was a regrettable attempt.
Chance Poore averaged 65 yards on three kickoffs. Matt Ruffolo connected on his only PAT try. Duffy averaged 53 yards on four punts, vaulting him to the top of the NCAA leaderboard. Zach Johnson had 72 yards on three kickoff returns compared to 64 yards gained on two Auburn returns. UK’s special teams play was fine outside of that fake punt, but we’re only talking about special teams because of that fake punt.
It was bad, especially in a game that, at the time, UK trailed by single digits. Stoops took the blame in his postgame news conference, for not communicating better with his special teams coaches. Dean Hood is a special-teams maestro who took with him to Murray State a great deal of coaching experience, in that unit and beyond, but it’s too early to say that his departure put that much of a damper on things.
For what it’s worth, I’m less worried about the special teams unit and more concerned that after how things went Saturday, Duffy will have a shorter leash when it comes to making that run. It was too much of a gamble in that situation, but there will be times when it absolutely would be a good call — whether he ultimately gets the first down or not.
I watched last week’s game from Lexington so it was difficult to get a good look at the whole field, but it did seem like the few times that Wilson threw downfield, it was often into thick coverage.
SEC defensive backs are good. They’re as fast, if not faster, than many receivers in the league, and Kentucky is probably on the lower end when it comes to raw talent in those battles. They can get the job done, but they’ve got to work harder. The Cats also don’t have a guy like Auburn receiver Seth Williams on the roster; you throw a player that big and fast into the equation and my guess is UK’s other receivers suddenly have an easier time getting open than they did on Saturday.
Kentucky’s receivers and tight ends caught 24 passes, only one of them a downfield completion (33 yards to Josh Ali). Seven other pass attempts down the sideline were incomplete, one resulting in a pass-interference penalty.
I’ll let Stoops close this one.
“Overall, not good enough,” Stoops said of his pass-catchers on Monday. “There were some good plays and I feel like there’s guys that will step up, but I don’t want to put that all on ‘em as well. … Everybody in the organization can get better, and that group can as well.”
Next game
Ole Miss at Kentucky
When: 4 p.m. Saturday
TV: SEC Network
Records: Ole Miss 0-1, UK 0-1
