Kentucky was moving up in the SEC. Did COVID sap their momentum or something else?
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Game day: Florida 34, Kentucky 10
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Florida football game at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Fla.
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Florida handed Kentucky its second straight loss on Saturday, knocking the Wildcats’ record down to 3-6 on the year.
What does the outcome mean, big picture, with one game remaining on the schedule in 2020?
Self reflection
After back-to-back losses at the hands of the Southeastern Conference’s elite — and going 0-4 against five of the league’s teams with winning records (Auburn and Georgia being the others) — it’s safe to say that Kentucky is not as close to knocking on the door of a conference-title game as it thought it might be prior to 2020’s kickoff.
COVID-19 surely has been a factor, but was it so much of one that Kentucky couldn’t overcome it except against two of the league’s worst teams and rival Tennessee, whose own step back this season is probably even more of a head-scratcher than UK’s? We might never know the complete impact, or if it’s even measurable, but some teams in the league were better able to withstand it than others, and it’s discouraging that a veteran-rich group of Wildcats wasn’t among them.
Something’s been amiss all year with this team. On paper, it’s talented, but the level of play across the board has been so inconsistent from game to game, often even half to half, that it seems irresponsible to lay the blame solely at the feet of a pandemic. With one game left in the regular season and a possible bowl game on its schedule, it’ll still be a minute before UK can conduct a full review of its whole campaign, but it can at least know it’ll enter that period with this in mind: “Why weren’t we as good as we thought we were?”
Kentucky’s place
There’s still one game left on the schedule, and it’s a biggie in terms of outward perception regardless of the unusual circumstances both teams face.
Kentucky had won five straight over South Carolina before last year, a streak essential to its climb under Mark Stoops. Last year’s loss came amid a losing skid that happened in part because the Cats couldn’t field a healthy quarterback, and prompted the season-changing move to Lynn Bowden at that position. There’s not really a clear excuse to forgive a loss this season, if it were to happen.
The Cats’ next game all year long has been penciled in as winnable, and looks even more achievable with Will Muschamp axed and several talented Gamecocks having bolted early from the campaign. Even if it remains short-handed due to COVID-19 procedures, Kentucky should be the favorite at home next week. And if it wants to affirm its position as a middle-of-the-pack team in the league, rather than something closer to a bottom-feeder, it needs to make Vegas right.
Special teams
If it wasn’t already, it’s become clear that Kentucky’s lack of an official special teams coordinator should be re-evaluated in the offseason.
Two special-teams miscues — Kentucky was caught sleeping on a fourth-and-2 fake punt and botched a punt return — led to all 14 of Florida’s first-half points. Stoops told the UK Sports Network at halftime that Max Duffy shanked the punt, but even so, there were few obstacles in the way between Kadarius Toney and the end zone on that momentum-swinging play before the half. Those plays came on the heels of last week’s meltdown at Alabama, in which UK twice failed to come away with field goals when the game was still within reach.
Multiple coaches have special teams experience, Stoops says, and longtime quality-control assistant Louie Mastakis has been more heavily involved in practice, but a dedicated, in-game coach is a luxury Kentucky can afford and should expense. It’s easy to look past that area of the game, but it’s cost the Wildcats enough this season to make a difference; perhaps re-investing in it will provide high dividends.
This story was originally published November 28, 2020 at 3:22 PM.
