Mark Stoops not ready to consider Kentucky football staff changes after loss to Vanderbilt
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Game day: Vanderbilt 24, Kentucky 21
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So much for the hope that Kentucky football’s game-winning drive at Missouri was the spark needed to turn around a struggling offense.
Instead, after a 24-21 loss to Vanderbilt that snapped the Commodores’ 26-game Southeastern Conference losing streak, the verdict was clear. Kentucky’s offense is broken.
Now the only question is what Mark Stoops can do to fix it.
Asked following the loss if Kentucky’s offensive struggles were to the point where he was ready to consider in-season staff changes, Stoops responded with a simple, “no,” but the Wildcats’ head coach also did not try to sugarcoat the extent of the concerns.
“There is only one way out,” Stoops said. “There is no way to point fingers or anything like that. We know there are issues, things to be addressed. That will happen at the appropriate time.
“And then there is work. That’s it. You just got to go back and work and try to get better in every area.”
Vanderbilt entered the game ranked 126th of 131 teams nationally in total defense (472.7 yards per game) and 130th in passing defense (314 yards per game). Kentucky totaled just 322 yards and 109 passing yards.
Kentucky’s two fourth-quarter touchdown drives came without completing a single pass. Star quarterback Will Levis, widely projected as a first-round NFL Draft pick, completed 11 of 23 passes without a touchdown. He was just 2 of 10 for 23 yards in the second half.
For the sixth consecutive game Kentucky failed to score more than 21 points.
The Wildcats’ offensive issues have been clear for some time.
A rebuilt offensive line is among the worst in the country. The inexperience of a group of dynamic receivers has shown up in key moments. Levis has been limited physically by the mounting toll of so many hits and now appears affected by fears of the pass rush even when the pocket is clean.
“But ultimately it falls back on me,” offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello said.
In firing former Kentucky offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson after just one season in the program in 2015, Stoops has proven willing to make a quick move on his staff when he feels a change is needed, but he apparently is not ready to join the growing number of programs making in-season coaching changes.
Whether that resolve can last another two weeks with a game against No. 1 Georgia and the Governor’s Cup rivalry game against Louisville looming remains to be seen, but there is likely no quick fix for Kentucky’s offensive issues.
Kentucky has now reached its opponent’s side of the field 15 times in the last two games but scored just five touchdowns on those drives. Against Vanderbilt, Kentucky reached the Commodores’ side of the field on each of its four first-half possessions but scored just six points.
Included in that stretch was an opening possession that started on the Vanderbilt 29-yard line after a turnover and gained zero yards. A 15-play drive ended with a 27-yard field goal. A 10-play drive ended with a blocked field goal.
“I could sit here and make excuses for youth and stuff like that, but the reality of it is we’re just not efficient enough in critical situations where we need to be,” Scangarello said. “… When you don’t score big-play touchdowns, when you’re trying to drive the length of the field and earn it, it’s very hard. To have 6-minute drives, 10-play drives and end up with field goals, you’re not going to win games that way unless you’re in real low-scoring games.
“It is frustrating for everyone, but we’ve got to figure it out. We’ve got to score touchdowns, not field goals.”
Kentucky finally found one of those big-play touchdowns with 5:03 remaining in the game when running back Chris Rodriguez briefly gave the Wildcats a 21-17 lead with a 72-yard touchdown run, but for the second time in the fourth quarter UK failed to convert a 2-point conversion.
Those miscues left the door open for Vanderbilt to drive down the field for its game-winning touchdown with 32 seconds left. To be sure, Kentucky’s defense earned its share of the blame for the embarrassing defeat by having one fourth-down interception negated by a penalty and surrendering a 40-yard pass on another fourth-and-11 play on that drive, but if the offense had been able to turn its long drives into touchdowns earlier in the game or taken advantage of two first-half Vanderbilt turnovers the game would have been decided by then.
“It was a weird kind of flow of the game,” Levis said. “I haven’t watched the tape yet, so it’s hard for me to tell, but I don’t understand how I can have less than 200 yards passing in three straight games. It’s frustrating. I know I can throw the ball, but it’s not just me. I need to get better. Everyone else needs to get better.
“I trust Coach (Scangarello) that he’s going to call the game the best way he sees possible. He knows a hell of a lot more football than I do, so I think he has a better grasp on things. So, I’m going to trust everything that he calls and he does. But yeah, it is frustrating.”
While it would be unrealistic to expect Kentucky to be able to drastically change its offensive scheme 10 games into a 12-game season in time for next week’s matchup with Georgia, there are other factors to consider with possible staff changes.
Kentucky is just more than a month from the early signing period. Convincing another group of high school skill position players to sign to play for an offense that is struggling so badly seems risky. Kentucky also needs to hit the transfer portal in search of Levis’ replacement.
The transfer portal flows both directions, though. Now Stoops and company must also worry about keeping the much-hyped group of freshman wide receivers on campus. The window to enter the portal opens after the day after bowl selections are announced.
Stoops hoisted much of the blame for how a season that began with Kentucky ranked in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 for just the fifth time in program history spiraling to this point on himself.
“You have to continue to grind and build your culture, your team, your mentality, and I’m not doing a good enough job with it right now,” Stoops said. “I told the team that. I can’t ask them to … take a good look themselves and make sure they’re doing things — I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t do that myself, and the staff.
“So we all have to do that, and it starts with you individually. And collectively we got to find some answers.”
Answers were hard to come by in the immediate aftermath of arguably the worst loss of Stoops’ decade tenure in Lexington.
The primary question was obvious, though.
How exactly can an offense with a likely first-round draft pick at quarterback, one of the best running backs in program history and a dynamic group of young receivers struggle so badly?
“I don’t know,” Levis said. “I ask myself that, too.”
Next game
No. 1 Georgia at Kentucky
When: 3:30 p.m. Saturday
TV: CBS-27
This story was originally published November 12, 2022 at 6:10 PM.
