Thankfully, just like 2020, this Kentucky football season will be over soon
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Game day: Florida 34, Kentucky 10
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Florida football game at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Fla.
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Just one more game.
One more game and this abnormal version of a Kentucky football season will come to an end. And not a moment too soon. (One more regular-season game anyway.) One more game and we can put away the COVID-19 tests, the masks, the protocols, the contact tracing, the all-SEC schedule, all the necessary requirements to play college football in the middle of a pandemic.
Kentucky lost 34-10 to No. 6 Florida on Saturday in The Swamp to fall to 3-6. The result was no surprise. Kentucky was a 25-point underdog, after all. Mark Stoops is now 0-13 against top-10 teams, not that you can hold that against him. Kentucky hasn’t beaten a top-10 team on the road since 1977.
There were a few different wrinkles to this particular defeat. A first half of good work by the visitors — highlighted by Florida Coach Dan Mullen chewing out defensive coordinator Todd Grantham on the home sideline — was erased by two special teams errors. In the first quarter, Kentucky allowed Florida to convert a fake punt on a fourth-and-2 from its own 40 to extend a drive that ended with a touchdown. Late in the second quarter, up 10-7, the Cats botched a punt from their own 9 — Max Duffy’s kick went right as the coverage team gathered left — that ended with Kadarius Toney scoring on a 50-yard return to give Florida a 14-10 lead at the half.
Yellow flags strangled the Cats in the second half. In the third quarter, UK had 18 yards of offense and 78 yards in penalties. Successive face mask infractions followed by a defensive pass interference call in the end zone led to a Florida TD on the Gators’ first possession of the third quarter. From there, that all-too-familiar snowball began its roll down the hill. The Gators’ superb tight end, Kyle Pitts, was back after missing the last two games with a concussion and ended up with three touchdown receptions. Were it not for the fact the Kentucky defense continued to play hard, the final margin would have been worse.
One thing didn’t change: Kentucky’s offense. Or lack thereof. The Cats were outgained 418-221. Six of nine games Kentucky has failed to reach 300 yards of total offense. It managed just 46 yards the final two quarters. After kicking a field goal for a 10-7 lead with 2:13 left in the first half, Eddie Gran’s offense went six straight possessions without a first down.
The most glaring failures came on short-yard situations. Eight times Kentucky faced third down from 3 yards or fewer. Just once did it convert. Overall, the Cats were just 2-for-13 on third down. “Losing football,” Stoops said afterward. “Not good enough.”
You can’t talk Xs and Os without considering Jimmys and Joes, as the saying goes. In 2018, the Cats had Benny Snell in those situations. Record: 10-3. In 2019, they had Lynn Bowden. Record: 8-5. This year, they have Chris Rodriguez. But for the last two weeks, at No. 1 Alabama and then at No. 6 Florida, the Cats have been without their bullish back, left home in Lexington for presumably COVID-19 reasons.
Which circles us back to the last-game scenario. Yes, given the victory requirement for postseason participation has been eliminated this unprecedented season, Kentucky can still go to a bowl game in 2020. Will that happen? Who knows in this crazy campaign. What we do know is that there is one game remaining on the schedule, Saturday at Kroger Field, versus South Carolina.
Finishing the regular season 4-6 is nothing to celebrate, but it’s sure better than 3-7. Especially when you’re coming off a 60-point loss at Alabama and a 24-point loss at Florida. At the end of the day, my stance is that this season — from the loss of Chris Oats to the death of John Schlarman to the challenges of the past two weeks of trying to play with a truncated roster against two of the best teams in the country — is best forgotten. Move on and hope for better days ahead.
One more game and we can all do just that.
This story was originally published November 28, 2020 at 5:31 PM.
