After another tough SEC loss, is it ever going to happen for Kentucky football?

After Kentucky’s third straight loss to those garish orange invaders from the southern border, and its third straight loss in this once-promising season, few could blame the good citizens of the BBN to question the ceiling of its favorite football program.

The big question: Is it ever going to happen? Is Kentucky football ever going to clear that hump and take that much-talked-about next step? Is a program that has made that challenging climb from irrelevancy to respectability ever going to reach the highest rungs on the SEC ladder?

Place Saturday night in that crowded file of missed opportunities. Tennessee was in town. Under the lights. Sellout crowd, even if a good bit of it was dressed in that Halloween-ish UT orange. Electric atmosphere. Kentucky was much better on offense, but lacking on defense. Again, so close, but so far. Final: Tennessee 33, Kentucky 27.

“Great game,” UK coach Mark Stoops correctly called it afterward. “It is very disappointing to come up on the wrong side of that game.”

The loss dropped the Cats to 5-3 overall and 2-3 in the SEC. Dreams of an SEC Championship berth all but died with that 51-13 drubbing at No. 1-ranked juggernaut Georgia. Dreams of a New Year’s Six bowl took an uppercut with that 38-21 home loss to Missouri two weeks back. Now, after the bye week, Saturday’s loss has a once 5-0 Kentucky scrambling to save its season.

There were bright spots of blue on Saturday. UK quarterback Devin Leary threw the ball better than he has all season. Receivers Dane Key, Barion Brown and Jordan Dingle showed a “that’s-my-ball” mentality. Tennessee’s defensive strategy was to limit Ray Davis (season-low 42 yards on 16 carries) on the ground and force the Cats win through the air. And the Cats nearly did.

Kentucky’s defensive problems persisted, however. (Story of Kentucky football, right? One side struggles while the other shines.) Now 3-0 against Stoops, Josh Heupel’s high-tempo attack has scored 122 points on the Cats. There was UT’s 45-42 shootout win in 2001. In last season’s 44-6 rout of Kentucky at Neyland Stadium, Tennessee started five possessions inside the UK 50-yard line. Tennessee had just one Saturday. And still scored 33 points.

The numbers aren’t good. Over its last three games this season, Brad White’s defense has allowed 122 points. (There’s that number again.) UK entered Saturday with a top-15 rush defense only to be gashed for 253 yards, including Jaylen Wright’s 52-yard tone-setting touchdown dash on the game’s fifth play. In this three-game Kentucky losing streak, opponents’ 32 possessions have ended with 13 touchdowns, 10 field goals, two turnovers and a mere six punts.

From 1985 through 2016, Kentucky beat Tennessee once. From 2017 through 2020, it split its four games with the Vols, however. The Cats were on the rise, the Vols in decline. Matters have returned to their traditional order, however. This isn’t the same Tennessee team that finished 11-2 last season, but the Vols were still able to celebrate on Kentucky’s home turf. Again. That’s a worrying sign.

Kentucky football’s difficult task in SEC

It all speaks to the Herculean task at hand for Kentucky. Stoops has done terrific work in raising the program to its current point. He’s still the man for the job — don’t even go there — but that so-called next step was always going to be much, much, much more difficult. This is SEC football with all that tradition, all that power and all those resources. This “It Just Means More” league doesn’t play football for funsies.

And despite what you might think, Kentucky’s season isn’t over. To avoid a total collapse, a UK win at Mississippi State on Saturday isn’t just needed, its required. The Bulldogs are 1-4 in SEC play. And Kentucky’s offensive showing Saturday offers something to build on.

I wrote last week that Saturday was a “prove-it” game for this Kentucky football team, and it was. The result proved that Kentucky remains close to where it wants to be. And yet still so far away.

This story was originally published October 29, 2023 at 11:57 AM.

John Clay

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-472-4218

John Clay is a sports columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader. A native of Central Kentucky, he covered UK football from 1987 until being named sports columnist in 2000. He has covered 20 Final Fours and 42 consecutive Kentucky Derbys. Support my work with a digital subscription