Why the play of UK’s defense is biggest reason to worry season has spiraled out of control
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Preview: Kentucky at No. 7 Tennessee
Click below to read more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s preview coverage ahead of Saturday’s Kentucky-Tennessee football game at Knoxville.
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In this space each week we normally look at the various parts of Kentucky’s football operation that improved or hurt their stock in the previous game.
But after three straight losses, the last of which included another abysmal offensive showing, a quarterback switch and a Kroger Field record for rushing yards by an opposing player, there is no spinning anything about UK as trending upward right now.
The bigger question is if the season is already past saving.
“I wouldn’t say it feels like it’s spiraling out of control,” quarterback Gavin Wimsatt said. “I think it’s just a tough situation. Don’t get another loss. But, part of part of the game. Get back to work, get better and try to get it done next Saturday.”
Mark Stoops’ decision to bench starting quarterback Brock Vandagriff for Wimsatt in the second half of Saturday’s 24-10 loss to Auburn when the game was still in reach has further illuminated the issues on an offense that has failed to score more than 20 points in an SEC game.
But it was already clear this offense was a liability. Kentucky’s only hope was that its defense played well enough to pull out low-scoring games with limited possessions.
After poor showings against Vanderbilt, Florida and Auburn, the defense can no longer be counted on either, though.
“There’s a standard that we have to play to, the standard that’s been set by guys that have come before,” defensive coordinator Brad White said after the Auburn loss. “And that standard was not even close to set.
“We talked about it in the bye week. We talked about coming out of that Ole Miss game and how they played. They set a bar and a standard for what this defense should be and how they should be, and it doesn’t matter who’s in and who’s not in or who’s hurt, or coaches included, we have got to play to that level. There is no other option.”
Kentucky’s defense was riding high after holding the vaunted Ole Miss offense to a season low 353 yards and 17 points on Sept. 28, but the bye week that followed seems to have sapped the unit of its momentum.
First, Diego Pavia and Vanderbilt frustrated their way to a win in Kroger Field. Then the Wildcats surrendered five passes of at least 40 yards and five rushing touchdowns in a blowout loss at Florida.
Against Auburn, Florida’s long passes were replaced by a series of explosive Tiger runs.
Auburn running back Jarquez Hunter finished the night with 23 carries for 278 yards and two rushing touchdowns. He topped the previous record for rushing yards by a UK opponent in Kroger Field by 26 yards.
Included in Hunter’s record-breaking performance were runs of 50, 45 and 46 yards.
“They ran it down our throat,” White said.
As Stoops pointed out after the loss, Kentucky’s defense is playing short-handed.
Star cornerback Maxwell Hairston has missed the last four games with an undisclosed medical issue. Backup cornerback Jantzen Dunn was also unavailable against Auburn.
Linebacker D’Eryk Jackson, who was listed on the availability report as probable all week, started but was sidelined in the first half. Outside linebacker J.J. Weaver suffered an ankle injury on a sack at the end of the first half and did not return.
“There’s no excuse,” White said. “Everybody’s got to go through that. Everybody’s got beat-up guys. Everybody’s got backups set up to step up when they go in the game, and the backups when they come in the game, they have to know what to do. They rep it in practice. They’ve got to execute as well.
“I’ve got to go back and look. If it’s too much for them to execute, I need to reevaluate.”
The fact that Wimsatt fared no better than Vandagriff at quarterback means the pressure on Kentucky’s defense to keep the Wildcats in games is unlikely to ebb anytime soon. Now, the Wildcats face a daunting task at No. 7 Tennessee against Josh Huepel’s high-octane offense that has given White’s defense fits even in good seasons in recent years.
While Kentucky has not been mathematically eliminated from bowl contention, the Wildcats now need to upset at least one of Tennessee and No. 6 Texas on the road in addition to beating Murray State and Louisville at home to reach a bowl for the ninth straight season.
Fans and reporters might have already dismissed the possibility of that outcome given Kentucky’s current form, but Stoops and his players cannot afford to admit defeat with four games left to play.
“Look yourself in the mirror,” cornerback JQ Hardaway said. “Find out what you can do better, because everybody can do something. Don’t just try to point fingers at the next guy. … It is not going our way, but if we all just continue to go to work and believe in each other I believe positive things will come.”
Few outside of Kentucky’s locker room share that optimism. Whether this weekly stock report has anything positive to report in the final month likely depends on how many of Hardaway’s teammates still take that view.
“We’ve got to look at what we are doing,” Stoops said. “We got to look at how we are playing. We got to look at all options. You can’t point fingers. We’ve got to find some solutions, clearly.
“It’s very frustrating. There’s no excuses. There’s nothing I’m going to say that’s the right answer. We’ve got to do a better job.”
This story was originally published October 28, 2024 at 6:45 AM.
