Stock watch: Trevin Wallace, Jordan Dingle rising, but kicking, pass protection woes grow
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Game day: Kentucky 21, Missouri 17
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Missouri football game at Memorial Stadium in Columbia, Mo.
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Some Kentucky football performances are easier to judge than others.
The takeaways from the Wildcats’ win over Mississippi State were almost all positive. A week later, a blowout loss at Tennessee was close to an all-systems failure.
Saturday’s win at Missouri does not fall neatly into either category.
Mark Stoops’ team left Columbia with a victory, but the performance was still bogged down by the type of self-inflicted mistakes that have plagued the team throughout the season. The defense was dominant, but the offense struggled for much of the afternoon.
We take a closer look at what went right and what went wrong in the UK football stock watch.
RISING
Trevin Wallace: Losing team captain DeAndre Square to injury against Tennessee could have been a major blow to a defense already missing fellow super senior inside linebacker Jacquez Jones. Instead, Wallace looked like the defense’s best player while filling in for Square at weakside linebacker.
“We all love DeAndre. I wish he could play another six years,” Stoops said. “Absolutely love that guy. He’s one of the heartbeats of our team … but we have a really good player there in Trevin. There was no doubt he was going to go play well.”
Defensive coordinator Brad White credited Square and Jones, who both made the trip despite being unavailable, as still providing valuable leadership on the sideline. That help paid off for Wallace, who led Kentucky with nine tackles, three tackles for loss and one sack.
“I had butterflies in my stomach when we first started playing, but Square came and talked to me and was like, ‘It’s your game. You wanted this position. You can go take it,’” Wallace said. “He was like, ‘Just go out there and take it.’ That’s what I did.”
Jordan Dingle: Remember when Kentucky’s tight end room was supposed to be a five-headed monster? In recent weeks Dingle has quietly separated himself from the pack.
Against Missouri, he totaled three catches for 35 yards and one touchdown. In the last two games, Dingle has tallied seven catches for 79 yards.
Meanwhile, Kentucky’s other tight ends have combined for just one catch in the last three games. (That went to freshman Josh Kattus for his first career reception Saturday).
“He’s just so smart,” quarterback Will Levis said of Dingle. “He works his tail off. His attitude is as good as anyone else’s on the team. … He’s established himself as the premier tight end on our team right now. I think that’s been pretty evident in these last few weeks. He’s just got to keep working. He’s still young. I know he’s got a lot of determination, a lot of goals for himself, but he’s going to get there eventually.”
FALLING
Special teams: It’s difficult to say the stock of Kentucky’s special teams is down only because it was so low even before the Missouri game. Still, it’s impossible to ignore how bad that facet of the game was in Columbia.
Matt Ruffolo badly missed two field goals. Kentucky gave Missouri three points when it negated a missed field goal with an illegal substitution penalty. A bad snap on a punt would have given Missouri at least two points late in the fourth quarter if punter Colin Goodfellow did not make a miraculous recovery in time to kick the ball away and draw a roughing-the-kicker penalty. The return units were flagged twice for illegal blocks.
“Inexcusable,” Stoops said. “… We’ve just got to get it fixed. We’ve got to snap the ball. We’ve got to get it done. That’s on me. It’s on me.
“Go ahead and ask questions. I deserve it, but we’ll get it fixed.”
Goodfellow had to be carted off the field after the hit that led to roughing-the-kicker penalty, so at least one personnel change appears to be coming on special teams. Ruffolo did convert all his extra points — no sure thing this season — but he is now just 9 of 15 on the season on field-goal attempts. Ruffolo has been hurt by poor snaps and holds, but it is probably time to try a different option there, too.
Pass protection: Another area where it would be difficult to be much worse than Kentucky had already been in the first eight games, but Kentucky matched its season high with six sacks allowed versus Missouri.
“We have to do a better job in some areas for sure,” offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello said. “The sacks are a huge issue.”
Scangarello was not ready to assign blame for each of the sacks without reviewing the film of the game, but he acknowledged at least a couple were likely due at least in part to Levis holding the ball too long.
“We probably could have gone off schedule and made a play or checked it down, but it’s hard because he’s not practicing full speed all week,” Scangarello said. “I feel bad in that regard. It’s not easy for him on game day, but there’s no excuses. We’ve got to do a better job.”
Of course, the reason Levis is limited in practice is due to the mounting toll from taking so many hits this season.
After the game, Levis was wearing a walking boot on his left foot again. Scangarello said the star quarterback has “more going on than people realize.”
Levis downplayed the impact of injuries but did acknowledge his mobility is currently limited. Without the ability to scramble, Levis looked antsy at times in the pocket.
“He’s tough as s—,” Scangarello said. “Sorry for my language, but that’s the reality of it. He is tough. He is fighting through some serious stuff. I am proud of him, I appreciate him and I value that because that’s honestly like playing in the NFL. It’s the same type of speed in the pocket, so you’ve got to be ready to stand in there.”
This story was originally published November 6, 2022 at 9:28 AM.
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