Quarterback play among many Kentucky low marks against Mississippi State
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Game day: Mississippi State 31, No. 12 Kentucky 17
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday night’s Kentucky-Mississippi State football game at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Miss.
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Coming off arguably his two best showings as a Wildcat, Will Levis offered his worst at Mississippi State.
He wasn’t the only player to do so. Chris Rodriguez didn’t run with the voracity onlookers are used to seeing from the junior running back, and twice put the ball onto the turf. Poor tackling was on full display — a team doesn’t rack up 108 of them without missing a bunch along the way — against an offense that lives and dies based on how well its foes can stop a pass-catcher who gets the ball behind the line of scrimmage. Several defenders, some of whom barely played this year before getting extended looks in the Magnolia State, were out of position in game-defining moments.
But Levis threw three interceptions — one in the red zone, and another on UK’s side of the field that led to a quick MSU touchdown — to just a single touchdown pass on 17 of 28 passing in the loss. The score, Kentucky’s only offensive touchdown, went to DeMarcus Harris with 13:37 to play in the game; it amounted to a footnote in yet another miserable showing, this time a 31-17 defeat, by the Wildcats in Starkville, where they haven’t won since 2008.
“He was definitely not comfortable,” Mark Stoops said of Levis in his postgame news conference. “They do a nice job of mixing some things up. I think he went back to pressing, rushing some things. Forcing the issue right from early in the game.”
Levis overthrew wide-open receivers multiple times on multiple series, and forced balls into double coverage more than once with the game still hanging in the balance. Once again, the only receiver with whom he could find much of a rhythm was Wan’Dale Robinson, who finished with nine receptions for 79 yards on 13 targets; Josh Ali, playing for the first time since suffering a knee injury against Florida, tied Harris and Rodriguez with two catches on four targets, next most after Robinson.
He looked nothing like the quarterback who in the last two games completed 46 of 59 pass attempts and threw for five touchdowns and no interceptions. At least some of that was a by-product of another rough showing on the ground; UK rushed 20 times for just 66 yards at Mississippi State after barely getting over the 50-yard mark at Georgia.
“It’s not just him,” Stoops said of Levis. “We didn’t play very good anywhere.”
It’s difficult not to contrast Levis’ effort with that of Will Rogers, the true sophomore who set an SEC record after completing 92.3 percent of his passes (36 of 39) for 344 yards against Kentucky. That was the most passing yards yielded by a UK defense since 2017, and it was the first time Kentucky surrendered 300 or more passing yards since its loss to Florida last season.
Most of Rogers’ completions were of the “dink-and-dunk” variety. Only 11 of the 36 resulted in double-digit yardage pick-ups, and just five went for gains of 20 yards of more, including his only touchdown throw — a 25-yard beauty delivered to Rara Thomas, who upon replay didn’t appear to hold onto the ball all the way to the ground, to then extend MSU’s lead to 31-10 late in the third quarter.
“He did a really nice job of holding in the pocket,” Stoops said. “He hit just enough down the seams to hurt us with some explosives, and they did a really nice job of hitting some check downs and running through us physically there on the perimeter as well.”
Opposing coaches have gone at Kentucky’s corners all season, so it wasn’t shocking to see Mike Leach’s squad attack them repeatedly on Saturday. It was eye-opening that Kentucky failed to take advantage of the Bulldogs’ own issues in the secondary; they were without starting safety Fred Peters upon entry Saturday and lost starting cornerback Martin Emerson six plays into the game after he was ejected for a targeting penalty.
Mississippi State also was without starting right guard Kwatrivous Johnson but seemed no worse for wear against a UK defensive line missing two of its three starters; it rushed for 94 yards on 35 carries, the most by the Bulldogs to date under Leach.
“They were more physical,” said linebacker Jacquez Jones, who had a career-high 18 tackles. “They had more energy. They came out with that and we didn’t respond. … We were on the field way too long.”
Boiling the result down to quarterback play — untimely decisions by Levis on offense and an inability to keep Rogers at bay on defense — is easy, and perhaps on this night a fair assessment. Regardless the why, UK turned in its worst effort of the season and heads back to Lexington with a 6-2 record. A bout with Tennessee looms, and suddenly has season-defining consequences.
“We got to come back and work,” Robinson said. “At the end of the day, the world’s not falling. It’s not over or anything like that. We still have a chance to do some things that haven’t been done around here in a long time.”
Next game
Tennessee at Kentucky
When: 7 p.m. Saturday
TV: ESPN2
This story was originally published October 31, 2021 at 2:29 AM.
