Working through ‘the what-ifs’ after another haunting UK football 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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If, like me, you wondered if Kentucky’s 34-7 beat down of Tennessee at Neyland Stadium in 2020 was going to alter the prevailing dynamic of the UK-UT football series, on Saturday night you got your answer.
Nope.
In what stacks up as only the latest installment of Wildcats football frustration vs. the Rocky Toppers, No. 18 Kentucky fell 45-42 to Tennessee before an energetic Kroger Field crowd of 61,690.
To the ghosts of prior, late-game UK heartbreak vs. UT — 1973, 1979, 1987, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2019 — you can now add 2021.
At the end of a wild shootout, Kentucky’s hopes of beating the Volunteers for a second year in a row for the first time in 44 years died with 29 seconds left in the game when a final UK drive stalled with four straight incomplete passes after the Wildcats had first-and-10 at the Tennessee 38.
“Not sure I’ve been a part of one quite like that,” said Kentucky Coach Mark Stoops, “where we’re so good in so many ways and absolutely not good enough in so many different ways as well.”
UK lost even though it ran 99 plays from scrimmage compared to UT’s 47.
The Wildcats went down even though they possessed the ball for 46:08 compared to Tennessee’s 13:52.
Kentucky accumulated 612 yards of offense yet lost because the Cats’ defense was all but helpless against new UT Coach Josh Heupel’s frenetic-paced offense.
UK (6-3, 4-3 SEC) surrendered scoring “drives” of one play (touchdown), three plays (touchdown), seven plays (touchdown), four plays (field goal), three plays (TD) and three plays (TD) to quarterback Hendon Hooker and the high-octane Vols (5-4, 3-3 SEC).
“Defensively, obviously, we have some struggles,” Stoops said. “... We’re not winning enough battles.”
I would say not.
So after another gut-wrenching loss to UT, UK backers are left with a haunting series of “what-ifs.”
Down 45-42, Kentucky got a last-gasp shot to win when Tennessee’s Chase McGrath pushed a 35-yard field goal wide right with 4:42 left in the game.
Buoyed by a 28-yard completion from Will Levis to Izayah Cummings on fourth-and-24, UK had the ball first-and-10 at the UT 38 with 46 seconds left in the game.
Even better, the Wildcats had two timeouts. That meant Kentucky had the option to use its running game as a tool to, at a minimum, get the ball into field-goal range.
Instead, Kentucky’s Levis threw four straight pass incompletions.
Might UK have been better off to let star running back Christopher Rodriguez carry the ball at least once to see if he could “pop one” from the 38?
“Fair criticism,” Stoops said. “We thought about that afterward. We talked about it.”
Conversely, UK offensive coordinator Liam Coen said he did not second guess Kentucky not giving Rodriguez a chance at the end.
“We felt like we were throwing it well and weren’t running it very well,” Coen said. “(The Tennessee defense was) just shooting the gaps. We were getting stuffed and smoked for like 3 yards (a rush). Typically, (that is) not a great look to run against.”
Actually, Rodriguez averaged 7.4 yards a carry on his five fourth-quarter rushes. On UK’s final drive, however, his three runs went for 3, 6 and 2 yards.
Kentucky’s last possession of the first half also ended up biting the Cats.
Tennessee scored to tie the game at 21 with 1:14 left in the first half.
UK was set to get the ball first in the second half, so when the Wildcats drove the ball to a second-and-4 at the UT 39 with 32 seconds left before halftime, it appeared the Cats were about to “steal a possession.”
Instead, Kentucky threw three straight incompletions, and turned the ball back to Tennessee with 16 seconds left.
That proved just enough time for Hooker to drive the Vols into position for McGrath to boot a 43-yard field goal as time expired in half one.
That exchange ended up being the difference in the game.
“I wish I’d have punted it, huh?” Stoops said. “You know, that’s why I punt normally. ... The way we were not playing great defense, (I was) trying to be aggressive, trying to get some points there at the end of the first half. ... And (it was a) bad decision.”
Obviously the most haunting question for Kentucky is how a Wildcats defense that carried the team in the first half of the season has morphed into such a sieve against the pass. Over the past three games combined, opposing QBs have completed a robust 65 of 79 passes and thrown eight touchdowns while averaging 303.3 yards a contest vs. the Cats.
Injuries that left UK without defensive front starters Marquan McCall (nose guard), Octavious Oxendine (tackle) and Jordan Wright (rush end/outside linebacker) Saturday night are obviously part of that equation.
“I think it’s a variety of things,” Stoops said of UK’s defensive implosion. “I think with some of the defensive linemen going down (it is) being thin and inexperienced. But, again, no excuses. I mean, we will coach better and they’ll play better.”
For now, that vow is likely scant comfort to Kentucky fans who find themselves back in a dark and familiar place:
Processing yet another agonizing football loss to Tennessee.
This story was originally published November 7, 2021 at 2:45 AM.
