‘The moment was too big’: Kentucky football embarrassed in loss at Georgia
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Game day: No. 1 Georgia 51, No. 20 Kentucky 13
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Georgia football game at Athens, Georgia.
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You can’t say Mark Stoops didn’t warn us.
“I thought we had a decent Monday, but weren’t up to par on Tuesday to go play the No. 1 team on the road,” Stoops said Wednesday in his appearance on the SEC coaches teleconference.
On Thursday, Stoops told reporters he was pleased with the way his team had responded to that challenge, but the version of Kentucky that showed up at Sanford Stadium on Saturday looked unprepared and undisciplined.
“I’ll put this one on me,” Stoops said after the loss. “We weren’t prepared in any area. We didn’t play very good in any area. They beat us from the start to the finish. So, pretty complete game by them.
“We weren’t up for the challenge. Didn’t coach very good and didn’t play very good.”
While the scoreboard said Georgia was only up 14-0 at the end of the first quarter, the product on the field suggested the game had already been decided.
Kentucky’s defense had no answer for Georgia’s offense, allowing quarterback Carson Beck to complete his first 12 passes. Penalties stalled UK’s first two offensive drives, and quarterback Devin Leary missed a wide-open Tayvion Robinson when he had a chance to overcome one of those miscues on third down.
When the Wildcat defense finally stopped Georgia on a third down on the second play of the second quarter, star defensive lineman Deone Walker shoved a Georgia player to the ground for a dead ball personal foul that kept the drive alive. Nine plays later, Georgia scored its third touchdown of the game.
Any lingering hope of Kentucky clawing back into to the game after its first touchdown was crushed in the final five minutes of the first half.
Receiving the ball down 24-7 with 5:15 left in the second quarter, Kentucky could conceivably make things interesting with a touchdown before halftime since it would open the second half with possession. Instead, the offense punted twice more before halftime and the defense allowed Georgia to score 10 more points to end any hope of a comeback.
“I just didn’t have them ready for that moment,” Stoops said. “The moment was too big for them. We didn’t play very good, we didn’t play very disciplined, we didn’t play very tough. We didn’t get it done. It’s not coach speak, but we as a staff and I have to do a better job of getting them ready and getting them prepared.”
While Kentucky had played Georgia closer than many other opponents in recent years, it felt like Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart was perfectly happy to use a conservative game plan in those contests with confidence only self-inflicted mistakes could lead to a loss. After closer-than-expected wins over South Carolina and Auburn, this felt like a Georgia team looking to make a statement.
The result only hammered home the gulf between Kentucky and the SEC’s elite.
There is still opportunity for Kentucky to rally for a special season, but significant soul searching will be needed in the wake of the embarrassment in Athens.
“We need to have a hard reset,” offensive coordinator Liam Coen said. “We got our butts kicked. Flat out, we got our butts kicked. When you get your butt kicked, there’s not a lot of people to blame.
“We’ve all got to look in the mirror. We’ve all got to reset. … All of us on the offensive staff and players as well. If you can’t respond from this one, it’s going to be tough to respond to anything in life.”
Kentucky surrendered 50 points for the first time since a COVID-19 breakout left it shorthanded in a 63-3 loss at Alabama in 2020. It surrendered 600 yards of offense for the first time since a 59-17 loss in Stoops’ first season in 2013.
The last two times Kentucky played Georgia with a chance to take control of the SEC East race in 2018 and 2021, the loss lingered long enough for Stoops’ team to post one of its worst performances of the season in the next game too. Do that against Missouri next week and Kentucky’s season could spiral quickly.
“We got whipped,” defensive coordinator Brad White said. “I think the key for all of us to understand is that you just have to stay within the facility. You’re going to get humbled really quick.
“Everybody tells you how good you are, and it can be right around the corner. So, we understand the takes we have ahead of us. A really good Missouri offense, so we better get things fixed and play back to our standard and our level.”
There is no opponent remaining on the schedule that looks unbeatable, but there is also no opponent remaining that Kentucky will beat with the same level of performance on display at Georgia.
Stoops was up front all summer about the challenges of maintaining the culture he has built in the transfer portal era. Now, an all-systems failure that will test the leadership of a locker room with so many new faces.
“I will not tolerate us not responding,” Stoops said. “We’re going to respond. I have great respect for Missouri. We always have good games. … That’s the only good thing about this beat down is it counts as one (loss), but we have to respond and get back to work and get back to being us.”
Missouri at No. 24 Kentucky
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
TV: SEC Network
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Records: Missouri 5-1 (1-1 SEC), Kentucky 5-1 (2-1)
Series: Kentucky leads 9-4
Last meeting: Kentucky won 21-17 on Nov. 5, 2022, in Columbia, Missouri
This story was originally published October 7, 2023 at 11:51 PM.
