Why does hope disappear for UK so fast? It’s been 10 years of the same problem
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Turnovers swing games; Kentucky rarely recovers once deficit expands.
- Under Stoops, UK has lost 38 straight games when trailing by 14+ points.
- Methodical run-first scheme limits comebacks; Kentucky must add pass threat.
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It is not difficult to identify the moment when Kentucky football’s 35-13 loss at South Carolina turned.
The Wildcats actually started strong, scoring on their opening drive then answering South Carolina’s first touchdown with a field goal for a 10-7 lead. But on the first two drives of the second quarter, disaster struck.
In a span of three plays, South Carolina returned two Cutter Boley turnovers for touchdowns, giving the Gamecocks a 21-10 lead.
Since there was still 10:43 left before halftime, the sequence should not have been a knockout blow to Kentucky’s hopes of winning the game. But keen observers of the Wildcats in recent years likely felt the same sense of inevitability after the two defensive scores.
Certainly when South Carolina scored another touchdown off a Boley interception later in the quarter for an 18-point lead, the outcome seemed settled even with another half to play.
Kentucky has never rallied from more than a 14-point deficit to win in the Mark Stoops era and has not won a game when it trailed by more than 10 points since 2019.
“We all know we can’t overcome turnovers,” Stoops said. “We just can’t do it. There’s not many people that can. Certainly in our league with the way we’re built right now, we just can’t overcome turnovers like that.”
Stoops is correct that no team wants to play from behind. In SEC games this season, teams that lead by double digits at some point in the game have gone on to win in six of eight games.
But comebacks for teams with higher-powered offenses do not seem quite as impossible as they do for Kentucky.
Earlier this season, Georgia rallied from 14 points down in the first half against Tennessee to win. Ole Miss rallied from 10 points down to beat Kentucky.
The only time Kentucky has rallied from a double-digit deficit to win since the 2019 Belk Bowl came against Louisville in 2023.
Kentucky has lost 38 consecutive games when it falls down by at least 14 points. The last rally from a 14-point deficit to win came 10 years ago this week against Eastern Kentucky.
“We are methodical right now and not overly explosive and therefore we have to play the game a certain way,” Stoops said. “I think we just have to continue to get better in all areas. Whether it be coming up just a fraction short in protection or the quarterback maybe missing a throw or a receiver not coming up with the dynamic catch, you put it all together and it’s not a great recipe.“
Since firing Eddie Gran as offensive coordinator after the 2020 season, Stoops has searched for more balance from an offense that had become too reliant on the run, but the recipe for winning the past two years has looked very similar to that 2020 team.
Kentucky wants to run the ball and be efficient on first and second down in order to stay out of obvious passing situations. Running the ball well comes with the added benefit of controlling the clock and limiting the possessions of opponents with higher-octane offenses.
That strategy worked to perfection a year ago when Kentucky upset Ole Miss on the road. It nearly worked in a 13-12 loss to Georgia the week before that and kept Kentucky in the game against Ole Miss earlier this season. It looked like a viable strategy early at South Carolina, too.
While Kentucky has only rallied from a 14-point deficit to win twice in the Stoops era, it is 19-2 against SEC teams when it leads by at least 14 points in Stoops’ tenure. The problem is the methodical style of play means Kentucky rarely builds comfortable leads against SEC foes.
Of the 21 games a Stoops-coached UK team has led an SEC team by at least 14, 17 came against Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Missouri and Mississippi State, four programs historically ranked in the bottom half of the league. One of the four times Kentucky built a 14-point lead against a traditional SEC power still resulted in a loss to Ole Miss in 2020.
Staying in control of the game has been key even in Kentucky’s best seasons of the Stoops era.
In the 10-win 2018 season, UK rallied from a 10-point deficit against Central Michigan and an 11-point deficit against Missouri, but never trailed at all in five of the wins, including the Citrus Bowl victory over Penn State. In the 10-win 2021 season, Kentucky never trailed by more than seven points in a victory and was 0-3 when trailing by double digits.
Comebacks have been even more difficult in the past two seasons. In five of its six wins since the start of the 2024 season, Kentucky never trailed. The lone exception was last season’s upset of Ole Miss when the Rebels scored a touchdown on the opening possession, but Kentucky never trailed by more than four points in the second half.
“Frankly, we can’t be in passing situations and just expect to be a traditional drop-back team,” offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan said. “I think that’s maybe the frustrating part. That (South Carolina) game got out of hand on a third-and-5 and a third-and-8. In our opinion, we’ve got to be a little bit unconventional and keep our team in a better position to go win football games.”
As to why Kentucky is not built to succeed when defenses know the Wildcats need to throw the ball — as is usually the case when rallying from multiple scores down — there are a variety of factors.
SEC defenses with NFL-caliber pass rushers like South Carolina perform their best in those situations against all opponents. Kentucky’s struggles on the offensive line in recent years make the Wildcats particularly vulnerable in those situations, and while the offensive line has been better this season, the tackles struggled in pass protection in their most difficult test yet.
Starting a redshirt freshman quarterback who might struggle to get rid of the ball as quickly as a veteran compounds the problem, as does a lack of difference-making wide receivers to make contested catches down the field.
Kentucky’s plodding pace of play during the Stoops era makes comebacks even more difficult. Then the cycle continues when it becomes harder to recruit the level of offensive talent needed to overcome those deficiencies without proof that Kentucky’s scheme can showcase those players the way they want to be used.
For instance, it should come as little surprise that the Wildcats were apparently unable to land a difference-making wide receiver in the transfer portal last winter after the offense ranked 112th nationally in passing yards per game in 2024.
“It’s a give or take,” Hamdan said. “You want to be aggressive. On the first interception we had (at South Carolina), we were only utilizing six guys in protection. We got beat with a twist, and the ball came out there. Then on the second interception, we decided to get seven guys out there (in protection), chip the edges. They were able with a twist-stunt to still get to us.
“So, that’s a fine line. The more guys you use in protection, you’re playing three (receivers) getting out, versus seven. And then when you choose to be in five-man protection, six-man protection, you get more (receivers) out but you get less help in there from a protection standpoint.”
Kentucky’s personnel is not going to change midway through the season.
There is reason to hope that Boley becomes more comfortable with experience and that an offensive line built largely around transfers from smaller programs adjusts to the challenge of facing elite pass rushers on a weekly basis. Perhaps a younger wide receiver like Hardley Gilmore emerges to aid the cause.
But for at least the next three games, all of which are against teams currently ranked in the top 15 of the Associated Press Top 25, that same sense of hopelessness in Columbia after the back-to-back defensive scores is likely to return should Kentucky fall behind by multiple scores.
“I think the biggest thing from my end here in two years is we got to play a different way to win football games,” Hamdan said. “That I do know. We’ve got to put ourselves in position to take risks when we need to take risks and be smart when we need to play smart. It’s figuring out that balance that’s critical in this role.
“...You look at the games in the SEC that we’ve been right in, that we’ve had a chance — Ole Miss, particularly last year, Georgia, last year — it was a very methodical approach. Hold on to the football, keep us in the game. We’re looking to create explosives and do all those things, but it’s got to be calculated, because we just can’t let games get away from us when we try to do certain things.”
This story was originally published October 3, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
