Despite its 2-0 start, here’s one thing about Kentucky football that’s becoming worrisome
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Game day: Kentucky 28, Eastern Kentucky 17
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Eastern Kentucky football game at Kroger Field in Lexington.
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From the Kentucky perspective, the Wildcats’ 28-17 win over Eastern Kentucky was unsatisfying. Through two games, the Wildcats are unbeaten, but their play has often been unfulfilling.
Let’s stipulate that UK playing a surprisingly close game with an opponent from “down the college football food chain” has not been an inevitable harbinger of doom for the Wildcats.
In 2018, Kentucky trailed Mid-American Conference foe Central Michigan 17-7 late in the first half. Those Wildcats rallied to win the game and went on to finish 10-3 and win the Citrus Bowl.
In 2021, Kentucky led Football Championship Subdivision foe Chattanooga only 14-13 after three quarters. Those Wildcats won that game and went on to finish 10-3 and win the Citrus Bowl.
So UK having to rally Saturday from behind 10-7 in the third quarter to beat FCS foe EKU does not mean the Wildcats can’t have a memorable 2023.
But an element of Kentucky’s play so far this season has felt like the continuation of an vexing trend from 2022.
Against Eastern, the Wildcats did a pretty good job of self-sabotage. A blocked punt surrendered by UK gave EKU a short-field touchdown to start the game.
After a recovered fumble gave Kentucky the ball at the EKU 24, the Wildcats turned it right back via an interception.
Twice in the first half, long Ray Davis runs were called back by holding penalties.
Twice, UK had the football third-and-1 only to lose 5 yards to illegal procedure penalties.
For the game, Kentucky was assessed 10 penalties that cost the Wildcats 70 yards.
This came one week after UK coach Mark Stoops was visibly agitated over his team’s miscues even as the Wildcats polished off Ball State 44-14 in the season opener.
Afterward, Stoops all but promised the Cats would “play cleaner” in week two. Instead, the penalty numbers in game two were worse than the seven penalties for 51 yards called on Kentucky vs. Ball State.
“The bottom line is winning,” Stoops said. “An area where we didn’t get clean and we have to improve is the penalties. Penalties are really hurting us.”
For the second-straight week, the Kentucky offense got off to a sputtering start.
A dynamic punt return of 36 yards by Barion Brown that set up a 24-yard touchdown pass from Devin Leary to Tayvion Robinson only 42 seconds before halftime was the only thing that kept EKU from shutting out UK in the first half. As it was, Kentucky went in at halftime tied 7-7 against the same Eastern defense that gave up 42 first-half points at Cincinnati last week en route to a 66-13 crushing from the Bearcats.
Said Leary: “The big takeaway from today: ‘We’ve got to start better.’”
Added UK offensive coordinator Liam Coen: “We can’t waste four, five possessions in the first half and expect to go win the football game (vs. SEC competition). But, if we had executed in the first half the way we did in the second half, maybe we are having a little different conversation.”
The Kentucky offense appeared to get in a rhythm after halftime. Counting the TD just before the break, UK scored on four straight possessions.
Leary said mechanical issues with his throwing motion were causing him to sail passes high in the first half. But the North Carolina State graduate transfer went 10 of 13 for 174 yards with three touchdown passes in the second half. For the game, Leary finished 24 of 38 for 299 yards with four TD tosses vs. one pick.
A super-senior and former Virginia Tech standout, Robinson lit Kentucky’s fire by catching six passes for 136 yards. The slot receiver scored two touchdowns for UK and set up a third with a 56-yard jaunt on a toss pass from Leary.
“The more he can do for us, the better our offense can be,” Coen said of Robinson.
Eastern turned in a gutty performance. It reflected an impressive coaching job by Walt Wells and his staff in the week between the Cincinnati debacle and EKU’s strong showing at Kroger Field. In a week when the family of Roy Kidd announced that the legendary former Eastern Kentucky head man was entering hospice care, Eastern did its greatest coach proud with the way it played.
“Obviously disappointed in the outcome of the game,” Wells said, “but very pleased with how our team came in and competed.”
Kentucky’s second straight miscue-filled showing in 2023 is worrisome because it feels like an extension of UK’s disappointing 7-6 season in 2022.
Last year, a Wildcats offensive penalty took what might have been the winning touchdown off the scoreboard in what became a three-point loss at Mississippi. A UK defensive penalty nullified what would have been a game-clinching interception in what became a three-point loss to Vanderbilt.
You could make a case that those two penalties dropped Kentucky’s regular-season record from 9-3 to 7-5. Now, Kentucky has started 2023 with a similar “feel” to its play.
“We’ve got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot,” Robinson said.
For Kentucky, you do not want to be a program where self-sabotage becomes the modus operandi. Two games into 2023, it feels like UK is teetering on that brink.
This story was originally published September 9, 2023 at 9:38 PM.
