Kentucky football’s sky isn’t falling, but the Cats need a crash course in basics
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Game day: Missouri 38, No. 24 Kentucky 21
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Missouri football game at Kroger Field.
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Hit the Kentucky football rewind button. Stop at 2006. Rich Brooks’ Cats had been bludgeoned 49-0 at LSU. It wasn’t that close. Blessed with an off week, Brooks took a long, hard look in the mirror and made a decision. His team was going back to basics.
Out of the bye, Kentucky defeated Mississippi State 34-31 in Starkville. The next week, the Cats intercepted Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford once coming out of his end zone and once coming into the UK end zone. Kentucky beat the Bulldogs 24-20, went 5-1 down the stretch and earned its first bowl bid since 1999.
Mark Stoops needs to borrow Brooks’ mirror.
Losses to Georgia on the road last week and Missouri at home on Saturday are not catastrophic. It’s the SEC. Losses happen. Georgia owns back-to-back national titles and the No. 1 ranking in the current AP poll. The Dawgs have now won 24 straight. Missouri owns a creative coach in Eli Drinkwitz and a chip on its shoulder where Kentucky is concerned.
It’s the way Kentucky suffered those back-to-back defeats that pulls the fire alarm. The Cats fell apart in both. They were boat-raced by the Bulldogs 51-13 in Athens. After jumping to a 14-0 lead Saturday at Kroger Field, they were outscored 38-7 over the final three quarters.
Undisciplined throughout, Kentucky earned more penalty yards (122) than passing yards (120). There were four offensive holding penalties, mainly the product of grabbing after being beaten quickly off the ball. There was a defensive pass interference penalty when a UK defensive back was beaten on a flea-flicker. There was a defensive offsides penalty. And a roughing the passer flag.
More concerning was a pair of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. Missouri poked at Kentucky’s frustration and the Cats took the bait. Defensive back Zion Childress earned a flag for throwing the football at a Missouri player, who might have thrown at Childress first. Defensive lineman Kahlil Saunders earned a flag for shoving Missouri quarterback Brady Cook to the ground after the Tigers’ two-point conversion try failed. A frustrated Saunders believed he had been held the play before.
“The lack of discipline is really something that’s standing out and bothering me,” Stoops said Saturday, adding, “We’re frustrated.”
Stoops’ recent teams have benefited from great leadership. We’re talking about players like Josh Paschal, DeAndre Square, Will Levis, Luke Fortner. I asked Stoops on Saturday if the undisciplined play on this team shows a lack of leadership.
“I don’t want to point the fingers at the team,” the coach answered. “I have to own that myself. And we will. Like I said, through the years we have been far from perfect, but we have been unselfish and played for each other. And that’s the message and we will get that across.”
He’s right, of course. It’s his team. The buck stops with the head coach. And the season is far from over. Kentucky is 5-2 overall and 2-2 in the SEC. Five games remain. Five tough games. The last two Saturdays have featured a pair of wrong turns, but there’s still time for a re-route. The Cats aren’t hopelessly lost. Not yet.
“We need to get to this off week and take a good look at ourselves and improve in a lot of areas,” Stoops said.
Get healthy. Linebacker Daveren Rayner played well Saturday, but the Cats surely missed the injured Trevin Wallace. Starting offensive guard Jager Burton missed the game with an injury. That didn’t help an offensive line that struggled to protect the quarterback, especially in predictable passing situations. Various wide receivers are less than 100 percent.
Get back to basics. The first rule of football is don’t beat yourself. And Kentucky now ranks 119th out of 133 FBS teams in penalty yards per game at 68.4. The Cats rank 103rd in passing yards per game at 196.7. I doubt that’s what Liam Coen had in mind when he returned to Stoops’ staff from the NFL.
“We’ve got to get a lot better,” Coen said Saturday. “And in a hurry.”
If I were Stoops, I’d give Rich Brooks a call.
