For UK football, U of L represents a final chance to salvage a difficult season
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky must beat Louisville next week to attain bowl eligibility and salvage season.
- Vanderbilt and Diego Pavia exposed Kentucky’s injured defense with 484 passing yards.
- Stoops faces renewed scrutiny; season outcome and U of L result could clarify his future.
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Gameday: No. 12 Vanderbilt 45, Kentucky 17
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Vanderbilt football game in Nashville, Tennessee.
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Vanderbilt blowout might be most worrying sign yet about state of UK football
For UK football, U of L represents a final chance to salvage a difficult season
Diego Pavia breaks Vanderbilt passing record as Commodores rout Kentucky
5 things you need to know from UK football’s embarrassing 45-17 loss at Vandy
Full stats and notable numbers from Kentucky football’s 45-17 loss at Vanderbilt
The goodwill Mark Stoops had banked with Kentucky football’s late-season, three-game win streak? Vanderbilt obliterated it in what will go down as the “Music City Massacre.”
Behind a dazzling performance by Hesiman Trophy candidate Diego Pavia, the No. 12 Commodores (9-2, 5-2 SEC) humbled Kentucky 45-17 on Saturday before a FirstBank Stadium crowd of 35,000 that included a surprising amount of UK blue.
Going against an injury-ravaged Kentucky defense, Pavia completed 33 of 39 passes for a new Vanderbilt single-game passing record of 484 yards. The 6-foot, 207-pound super-senior threw for five touchdowns and, for good measure, led Vandy in rushing with 48 yards.
“A team that’s definitely worthy of being in the playoffs — with a quarterback that is something else,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said afterward of Vandy and Pavia.
Coming off victories at Auburn, over Florida and against previously undefeated FCS opponent Tennessee Tech, Kentucky (5-6, 2-6 SEC) had seemed to be building late-season momentum.
The Cats came crashing back to earth in Nashville.
“Very discouraging performance by us,” Stoops said.
Now, for Kentucky, it’s pretty much this simple.
If the Wildcats can beat intrastate rival Louisville next week at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium, UK will salvage something meaningful from what has been a difficult season.
A Kentucky victory over U of L would earn the Wildcats bowl eligibility for the ninth time in 10 seasons.
It would return the Governor’s Cup, the trophy that goes to the winner of Cats-Cards, to UK for the seventh time in the past nine meetings with Louisville.
A Cats win would also deliver some comeuppance to former UK recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow, the “TurnCat” who switched sides in our state’s most-galvanizing sports rivalry by taking a job working for Jeff Brohm at Louisville this year.
The Cardinals (7-4, 4-4 ACC), after a good bit of talk in The Derby City over the first part of this season about making the College Football Playoff, will limp into the battle for the Governor’s Cup on a three-game losing skid.
Alas, the performance Kentucky put on the field in Nashville will not beat even the struggling version of U of L.
Pavia toyed with the UK defense. Kentucky, due to injuries, is down four starters from the defense that held Auburn to three points earlier this month. The Wildcats also played without three of their top four cornerbacks for the same reason.
So Pavia’s dominance of the Kentucky “D” was somewhat understandable.
The anemic showing over the first three quarters by the Kentucky offense, however, was disappointing.
Against a Vandy defense that had allowed 72 combined points in its two previous games vs. Texas (a road loss) and Auburn (an overtime win), UK could muster nothing when it mattered.
Kentucky ended the first half with 81 total yards — three of them on the ground.
Through three quarters, UK quarterback Cutter Boley had thrown for 77 yards.
“We just struggled to move the ball all night, you know?” Kentucky offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan said. “And I think it’s pretty apparent, probably even halfway through the first quarter, we need(ed) to use (up) tempo. And we couldn’t, you know, we couldn’t even get in a rhythm to get it going.”
What happened Saturday against Vanderbilt was not a good outcome for Stoops.
For many UK backers, every game this season has served as a referendum on whether the 13-year Wildcats head man deserves to return for a 14th season.
The 28-point loss was the largest for the Wildcats against Vanderbilt since the infamous 40-0 beating Vandy hung on the Cats in 2012 in a nearly empty Commonwealth Stadium (as Kroger Field was then known).
Then-UK coach Joker Phillips was fired the next day.
That day, Vanderbilt only outgained Kentucky by 187 yards, 447-260.
On Saturday, the Commodores outgained the Wildcats by 289 yards, 604-315 — and that would have been far worse if Boley hadn’t thrown for 203 yards in the fourth quarter after the contest had long since been decided.
Before the smashing Vanderbilt put on the Cats, the thought of UK winning at U of L seemed viable.
Now, you wonder if the Wildcats, especially the physically beaten-up defense, will be able to bounce back next week.
The Cats said the right things.
“This is for our bowl (trip),” UK linebacker Grant Godfrey said. “So coming in (this coming week), put in the effort so we can go bowling and, you know, get the Governor’s Cup back.”
Said Boley: “Guys got to know that (Louisville) is a lot of guys’ last shot, so everybody’s got to put their best foot forward, and we got to go out there and play our ball next week.”
Whatever the outcome in The Ville, perhaps the finish of the U of L game will, if nothing else, open the path to clarity on Stoops’ future as Kentucky head coach.
