This pandemic season has shown where Kentucky football really stands in the SEC
We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Darned coronavirus. Darned SEC. When the league announced a 10-game, conference-only pandemic football schedule, you knew Kentucky’s road would be rough.
So far, not so good. Saturday’s 14-3 loss to visiting Georgia left them 2-4. They could have beaten Auburn and should have beaten Ole Miss. After back-to-back wins over Mississippi State and Tennessee, they pulled a no-show in the Show Me State of Missouri. You can’t be doing that. Not this year. Not under the circumstances.
Mark Stoops’ troops didn’t play badly Saturday. Georgia is ranked No. 5 in the country. It was a 17-point favorite. The Bulldogs scored their fewest points in the series since 1995. The Kentucky defense played well enough to keep the home team in the game.
The Kentucky offense never came close to winning it, however. UK managed just 229 yards of total offense, the fourth straight game it failed to reach the 300-yard mark. The Cats failed to score a touchdown for the first time since last year’s Georgia game. They lost that one 21-0. There was an excuse that day, the heavy rain that soaked Sanford Stadium.
Saturday brought sunshine to Kroger Field. Quarterback Joey Gatewood, the transfer from Auburn, made his first collegiate start, subbing for the injured (wrist) Terry Wilson. It didn’t make much difference. At Missouri, Wilson completed four of 13 passes for 47 yards. Against Georgia, Gatewood completed 15 of 25 passes for 91 yards.
Three games now the Cats have failed to reach 100 passing yards. They sit 92nd nationally in total offense and 97th in passing offense among the 103 FBS teams.
Last year, Kentucky didn’t have to throw the football. It had Lynn Bowden. This year, no Lynn Bowden. Result: Fewer big plays. The numbers: In 2019, Kentucky averaged 5.5 plays of 20-plus yards per game, and 2.6 plays of 30-plus yards per game. In 2020, Kentucky is averaging 3.0 plays of 20-plus yards per game, and 1.0 plays of 30-plus yards per game.
Saturday, Kentucky produced one play beyond 20 yards — a 23-yard run by Chris Rodriguez. UK’s longest pass completion covered 11 yards. Georgia’s defense is terrific. The previous Saturday against a Missouri team that allowed 41 points each to LSU and Florida, Kentucky produced two plays of 20-plus yards all day — a 29-yard run by A.J. Rose and a 26-yard touchdown throw from Wilson to Josh Ali.
Despite what you might have thought Saturday, Kentucky wanted to throw the football down the field.
“We tried,” Stoops said. “Sometimes they were covered and they went to checkdowns, so it looks like a 3-yard gain when in fact we had something called down the field to try to hit some verticals, try to hit some slants, try to hit some big plays that they took away. So it’s not like we didn’t have those plays called. We did. We need to create them.”
You can blame the quarterback, but the guess here is that receivers aren’t getting separation. Remember that preseason comment from Stoops? “We play 10 SEC games and I can promise you you’re not going to see that stuff where there’s green grass all over the place and easy throws and guys open,” said the coach.
Four games remain. Two are on the road at Alabama and Florida in which the Cats will be heavy underdogs. Two are at home and winnable — Nov. 14 against Vanderbilt and Dec. 5 against South Carolina. For a program that had gone 16-16 the last four years in SEC play before this one, we’re probably looking at a 4-6 finish, maybe even a 3-7. One monumental upset would be needed for 5-5.
It’s not what this team wanted, or expected. But if nothing else, this season is revealing where the program is right now in the SEC scheme of things. It has improved, yes, but still with a ways to go.
Next game
Vanderbilt at Kentucky
Saturday, Nov. 14 (time and TV to be announced)
