‘Hard to stomach’: It’s not just fans who are unhappy with Kentucky football’s 2023 season
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Gator Bowl game day: No. 22 Clemson 38, Kentucky 35
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Friday’s Kentucky-Clemson Gator Bowl football game at Jacksonville, Florida.
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So you’re upset and angry over Kentucky football’s last-minute 38-35 loss to Clemson in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl on Friday at Everbank Stadium? Get in line.
There was no oh-that’s-the-way-it goes look on the face of defensive coordinator Brad White as he stood against a wall outside the locker room after his unit failed to stop Clemson from driving 68 yards in 11 plays to score the game-winning touchdown with 17 seconds left.
“It’s hard to stomach the loss because we had an opportunity to win the ballgame,” White said. “The offense made a great play to score and all we had to do was keep them out of the end zone, and we didn’t do that. That’s what makes it hard to stomach.”
A few feet away, offensive coordinator Liam Coen wasn’t celebrating his team’s 35 points or Barion Brown’s spectacular afternoon or the way his team nearly overcame three consecutive turnovers inside UK territory in the fourth quarter.
When asked about next season, an obviously agitated Coen said, “We have to take a huge step in a lot of areas.”
If UK’s 38-31 win at Louisville in the regular-season finale took the edge off the disappointment of Kentucky’s 2023 football season, Friday’s bowl brought recurring problems back to the surface.
Let’s be clear, I’m a Mark Stoops fan. Feel the same way about Coen and White. Coen is a creative young offensive play-caller who in 2021 showed what he can do when given weapons. White is a smart defensive play-caller who just last season led Kentucky to a No. 12 national ranking in both scoring and total defense.
The trio did not have a stellar year in 2023, however. I think they’d be the first to tell you that. Too many untimely penalties. Too many mistakes. Just too many too manys. Kentucky could have beaten Tennessee, should have beaten South Carolina, and had the opportunity to beat Clemson. Win those three and UK finishes 10-3 and Big Blue Nation is smiling. Instead, the Cats lost all three to finish 7-6 for a second straight season. Frowns all around.
It’s fair to question the overall talent on the current roster. Kentucky did not have a single player voted first-team All-SEC by the coaches. Not one. Ray Davis and Deone Walker were named first-team All-SEC by the AP, and deservedly so. But that’s it and that’s not enough. Not in this league.
It’s also natural to point a finger at the coaches. Perhaps there is untapped talent not being utilized or developed. Still, this staff has a proven record when it comes to development. Time to trot out this stat: From 2009 through 2017, Kentucky had 13 players selected in the NFL draft. From 2019 through 2023, Kentucky had 21 players selected in the NFL draft.
White has taken a lot of heat for Friday’s finish. After all, Clemson started its winning drive on its own 32, down five points with 2:34 to play. The Tigers converted a third-and-10 and picked up 16 yards on a third-and-18 that led to a conversion on fourth-and-2. Critics say UK was too passive defensively. In his postgame presser, Stoops referred to trying to “protect” young cornerbacks after starters Maxwell Hairston and Andru Phillips departed with injuries. It was bend-but-don’t-break until it did break.
So what did the Gator Bowl loss mean for 2024? It depends on what Kentucky does with it.
“I talked to the guys in the locker room after, the defensive guys,” White said. “I told them, ‘Listen, we’ve got to focus on the things that we didn’t do well. Don’t go into the offseason and say, look at these things we did so good and pat ourselves on the back. We need to take a good hard look at what we didn’t do well, the situations, the play calls, all of us, coaching staff, players, personnel, groupings, the whole deal, top to bottom.
‘We need to let this game, this feeling, fuel us and attack angry in the offseason.”
There you go. No one should be happy with his 2023 Kentucky football season. Not the fans. Not the coaches. Not the players. And they’re not.
