Five things you need to know from Kentucky football’s 45-42 loss to Tennessee
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Game day: Tennessee 45, No. 18 Kentucky 42
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday night’s Kentucky-Tennessee football game at Kroger Field in Lexington, Ky.
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Five things you need to know from No. 18 Kentucky’s 45-42 loss to Tennessee:
1. Curious Kentucky play calling at the end. Down 45-42, UK had the ball first-and-10 at the Tennessee 38 with 46 seconds left in the game after Will Levis hit Izayah Cummings with a 28-yard pass on fourth-and-24.
Kentucky at the minimum had to get ball into field-goal range and with two timeouts, could have used its running game in that attempt.
Instead, on first down, Kentucky quarterback Will Levis appeared to throw the ball away with DeMarcus Harris running a deep route down the left sideline.
On second-and-10, Levis threw incomplete to a well-covered Cummings.
Still needing at least 7 or 8 yards to get into field-goal range on third-and-10, Kentucky threw again, Levis misfiring in an attempt to hit Harris over the middle.
Now, with no choice but to throw on fourth-and-10, a Tennessee blitz forced Levis into an uncomfortable pass attempt toward Cummings near the Tennessee 20.
The throw was nowhere close to completion and that was the ball game.
This will only make Kentucky fans feel worse, but according to Kentucky’s pregame notes package, UK was 130-0 in its history when it scored at least 42 points in regulation until Saturday night.
2. The end of the first half killed UK. Tennessee tied the game at 21 on a Hendon Hooker pass to Jacob Warren with 1:14 left in the first half.
Kentucky was due to get the ball first to start the second half, so when the Cats drove the ball to a second-and-4 at the Tennessee 39 with 32 seconds left, it appeared the Wildcats were going to “break serve” and “steal a possession.”
Instead, UK threw three straight incomplete passes and turned the ball back over to Tennessee with 16 seconds left in the half.
That proved just enough time for impressive UT quarterback Hooker to drive the Vols into position for Chase McGrath to boot a 43-yard field goal as time expired on the first half.
That ended up being the difference in the game.
3. The Kentucky defense was slashed and gashed. UK was almost helpless against Tennessee’s up-tempo offense.
Amazingly, UT finished with 38 offensive points on 47 plays from scrimmage (the other seven came on a pick-six by cornerback Alontae Taylor).
The Volunteers scored on “drives” of one play (touchdown), three plays (touchdown), seven plays (touchdown), four plays (field goal), three plays (TD) and three plays (TD).
UK’s defense — which carried the Cats in September — has not been the same since defensive tackle Octavrious Oxendine was injured in the LSU game. Against Tennessee, UK was down three of its starting front seven with nose guard Marquan McCall and rush end/outside linebacker Jordan Wright joining Oxendine in being sidelined.
Kentucky’s pass defense is currently almost non-existent.
Hooker completed 15-of-20 passes for 316 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions.
During its current three game losing skid vs. Georgia, Mississippi State and Tennessee, Kentucky has allowed opposing quarterbacks to complete a combined 65-of-79 passes for 910 yards with eight TDs and zero picks.
4. More Rocky Top frustration. Kentucky failed in its bid to beat Tennessee for a second season in a row and a third time in the past five meetings.
The last time the Wildcats beat the Volunteers in back-to-back seasons remains 1976 (7-0 at Neyland Stadium) and 1977 (21-17 at Commonwealth Stadium).
UK last beat UT three out of five in 1958 (a 6-2 win in Knoxville), 1959 (20-0 in Lexington) and 1962 (12-10 in Knoxville).
On Saturday night, Kentucky lost even as it dominated time of possession 46:08 to 13:52.
UK actually outgained UT 612-461.
This will only make Kentucky fans feel worse, but this is the second time since 2016 that UK has had over 600 yards of total offense vs. UT yet taken an “L.”
In 2016, the Cats outgained the Vols 635-599 but lost 49-36 at Neyland Stadium.
5. Stoops reaches an unhappy distinction. With the loss, Mark Stoops is now 55-53 (since 2013) as Kentucky head coach.
That moves him past Bill Curry (26-52 from 1990 through 1996) as the coach with the most defeats in UK football history.
Of course, Stoops is also only six victories from passing Paul “Bear” Bryant (60-23-5 from 1947 through 1953) as the all-time wins leader in Wildcats football history.
By losing, Kentucky (6-3, 4-3 SEC) also saw its all-time record as a program drop back to .500 at 635-635-44.
Fashion police
For its border-state battle with Tennessee, Kentucky wore blue helmets, with blue jerseys featuring white letters and numbers and blue pants.
With the defeat, the Wildcats are now 6-2 since the start of the 2017 season when they wear all-blue uniforms.
This story was originally published November 6, 2021 at 11:12 PM.
