Fresh off close call, Kentucky football must refocus for new-look South Carolina
Kentucky football fans, when forming their expectations for the Wildcats’ next game, might be best served by not considering, at all, last year’s 41-18 shellacking of South Carolina.
These Gamecocks have a new head coach. It’s Shane Beamer, the son of former Murray State skipper Frank Beamer, better known as the man who built Virginia Tech into a respectable football-playing institution. They’re fielding a mostly full roster, not one ravaged by injury and COVID-19 opt-outs like the one that came to Lexington last December. The contest will be played in front of a, presumably, raucous night-time crowd at Williams-Brice Stadium, not in the friendly confines of capacity-restricted Kroger Field.
Last year’s UK-South Carolina tilt served as an indicator of which program was better built to withstand an abnormal level of attrition. This year’s contest reverts back to a more standard placement in the schedule, where it typically acts as something of a pivot point for two schools vying for relevancy in the Southeastern Conference’s bigger picture.
“It’s always a fun game,” UK head coach Mark Stoops said in his weekly Monday news conference. “Very challenging.”
While the Gamecocks didn’t put up much of a fight last year, they handled Kentucky the last time they traveled to Columbia. Due to injuries to Terry Wilson and Sawyer Smith, Lynn Bowden played quarterback for UK on its final offensive possession and led the Wildcats to their only score in a 24-7 loss; he was 6-2 as UK’s starter after that first glimpse.
That defeat is UK’s only one over its previous seven meetings with South Carolina, which after winning 11 games in three straight seasons (2011-2013) has not once managed a double-digit victory total. The Gamecocks have only finished with a winning record three times since, and they haven’t managed that since 2018 (7-6).
Kentucky struggled to put the clamps on Chattanooga, which led early in the fourth quarter, but Stoops after reviewing the game tape said “there were quite a few good things in there, believe it or not.” He seemed more pleased with the offensive playcalling of Liam Coen than Coen himself did immediately after the game. The defense played up to its expectations for a stretch before bending more in the second half. Stoops said after the game that UK’s most evident failing was both sides’ ability to complement one another against the Mocs, and he reiterated that on Monday.
“It was just one of those games that was aggravating and we let them hang around,” Stoops said. “And if you do that, that’s what can happen. You can lose a game that way.”
While the mood after Saturday resembled that of a loss, UK did improve to 3-0. It wasn’t dissimilar to its 2-0 start in 2017 following a close call against Eastern Kentucky, which held a 16-10 lead late in the third quarter before UK scored 17 straight to claim a 27-16 win. The Cats won at South Carolina, 23-13, a week later, despite giving up a 68-yard touchdown pass 13 seconds into the game and then throwing an interception early in their first offensive possession.
That Kentucky team didn’t already have a SEC win under its belt. It also didn’t have a rocket launcher like Will Levis under center, nor a speedster like Wan’Dale Robinson getting open downfield. UK this season has to prepare for a different-looking South Carolina program, but the Gamecocks can’t so easily rely on their past knowledge of the Cats to help them form a game plan, either. That crutch could have been beneficial coming off a 40-13 beatdown at No. 2 Georgia, the Gamecocks’ first Power Five opponent this season.
There remains much to clean up through three games, but Stoops said UK has improved each week. He used Levis’ efficiency in UK’s “quick game” spread sets as an example. He was 9-for-10 in those situations, Stoops said, with the only non-completion coming late in the game on a third-down attempt where Levis had an open receiver but tried to get a tougher ball to Robinson further down field.
“I’ll tell ya this: If we didn’t improve in the areas we did, then we would have lost that game,” Stoops said.
Coen confessed Saturday to taking Chattanooga more lightly than he should have, and that how UK practiced on Thursday was not ideal. Stoops joked Monday that the first-year coordinator needs to learn not to drop “nuggets” like that publicly.
“He’ll learn that, ‘cause sooner or later you all are gonna pull those words out and run him over with a bus,” Stoops said with a laugh.
Stoops did acknowledge a need for UK to go back to the drawing board in terms of overall preparation. That starts by trying to contain last week’s showing to last week, and not letting last year’s performance against the Gamecocks poison this year’s.
“(It’s) very different,” Stoops said. “This is the front end (of the schedule), so every one’s trying to prove themselves, and there’s a great energy. They’re very fundamentally sound in all areas. They’re very motivated.”
Notes
▪ “Jack” linebacker Jordan Wright should be available on Saturday, Stoops said. He missed UK’s game against Chattanooga after starting its first two contests.
▪ Colin Goodfellow averaged 50 yards per punt on four opportunities against Chattanooga, 13 yards better than true freshman Wilson Berry in as many opportunities through UK’s first two games. Berry has dealt with a back issue but continued to be listed with an “OR” alongside Goodfellow, a senior walk-on, on the depth chart.
▪ Kentucky’s game against Florida will be played under the lights at Kroger Field, but the official kickoff time and TV channel won’t be determined until next weekend. UK-UF will be played either at 6 p.m. on ESPN or 7 p.m. on SEC Network.
