It’s hard to know if uncertainty will take a toll on Kentucky football
Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, no one knows for sure if or when we’ll have a 2020 college football season. Conference commissioners told Vice President Mike Pence last week there will be no games without students on campus. Yet most agree, somehow, someway, the schools will find a way.
“Right now, football has to be played,” SEC Network analyst and former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy told ESPN’s “Golic and Wingo” on Thursday. “Literally, it has to be played. So, they are going to play come hell or high water. It’s going to happen.“
And if there’s no college football? Florida State Athletics Director David Coburn told FSU’s board of trustees on Friday, “I would just say God help us if that’s the scenario.”
The other question is how this uncertainty will affect those involved? When might training camp start? Considering most schools did not complete spring practice, how long will it take teams to prepare? And what’s the mental toll to all this?
Take the local team, for example. The 2020 season has the makings of a big season for Mark Stoops’ troops. The program has been to four straight bowl games. It has won its last two. Two years ago, it finished a rare 10-win season with a Citrus Bowl win over Penn State. Last year, it engineered an 18-play, 85-yard drive that covered eight Belk Bowl minutes to defeat Virginia Tech.
Yes, Lynn Bowden is gone. The wide receiver turned quarterback saved the 2019 season. Offensive guard Logan Stenberg is gone. Defensive tackle Calvin Taylor is gone. All three could hear their names called when the 2020 NFL Draft takes place this coming Thursday through Saturday.
A few other pieces have moved on, but by and large Stoops has plenty of talented pieces and depth returning for another successful season. That’s especially true on defense, which under first-year coordinator Brad White matured as the season progressed and finished 20th in the nation in total defense.
Offensive coordinator Eddie Gran, unsung 2019 hero, must rebuild a 2020 scheme. The run-heavy blueprint that fit Bowden’s abilities will be folded back into the more balanced approach the OC used to start 2019 before quarterback Terry Wilson was injured in the season’s second game.
Wilson’s health is an obvious key. You don’t just snap back from a patellar tendon tear. Yet the UK coaches have been consistent in predicting that the senior-to-be will be ready for the season, regardless of when the season happens to start. And while Wilson rehabs, Auburn transfer Joey Gatewood awaits NCAA word on whether he must sit out the season.
But let’s return to the subject of Stoops. He’s 44-44 as Kentucky coach. A winning 2020 campaign would make him the first UK coach to be over .500 after eight seasons. Despite going 41-36-3 from 1954-61, Blanton Collier failed to have his contract renewed. Collier went on to win an NFL title as head coach of the 1964 Cleveland Browns. UK hasn’t had a coach finish with a winning record since.
Not long ago, a friend remarked to me that you really have to be a longtime Kentucky football fan to appreciate what Stoops has accomplished. He’s right. You need the scars. Under tough circumstances, Rich Brooks built a solid foundation in his seven seasons (2003-09), but Stoops has navigated the next step. SEC Network funds have aided the cause, but Stoops has capitalized. He has recruited. He has developed. He has won.
Before the pandemic, I believed this would be the season Stoops solidified this standing. If things fell right, his Cats had a shot at another above-500 SEC season and a shot at another 10-win season. If those happened, it would be difficult to ignore the coach’s accomplishments then.
Now? I’m still a believer, but I have to admit the uncertainty of our current predicament has placed another obstacle in the path. It’ll be fun to see what happens. It’ll be fun to have football, whenever that might be.
