Three takeaways from Kentucky football’s loss to the Auburn Tigers
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Game day: Kentucky at Auburn
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Auburn football game at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala.
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In addition to my column, three takeaways from Kentucky football’s 29-13 loss at Auburn on Saturday:
1. It was a rough first game for SEC officials, too
Maybe the Kentucky and Auburn football teams weren’t the only ones who could have used a warm-up game or two before diving right into SEC play. Turns out perhaps the officiating crew needed to knock off some rust, as well.
Not only did the guys in stripes miss a horse collar tackle call on Auburn and a couple of face mask penalties here and there, but the crew somehow failed to see UK running back Chris Rodriguez clearly cross the goal line on a first-and-goal from the Auburn 1-yard line with 34 seconds remaining in the first half and the Cats trailing 8-7.
Even more surprisingly, the league’s official review crew in Birmingham also apparently failed to see Rodriguez cross the goal line, as well. At first, it looked as if perhaps the officials thought Rodriguez’s knee touched the ground. But instead of marking the ball at where the knee supposedly touched, the officials marked the ball inside the 1-yard line. And the official review confirmed the ruling and the spot.
Two plays later, UK quarterback Terry Wilson threw a bad interception, the outcome of which left Auburn Coach Gus Malzahn upset with the officials. The Tigers’ Roger McCreary returned the interception 100 yards for an apparent touchdown, only to have the score wiped off the board when teammate Derick Hall was called for targeting for a block behind the play.
“I hope like crazy that’s a common-sense call,” said an obviously irate but not quite coherent Malzahn during the halftime interview with Cole Cubelic of the SEC Network.
UK Coach Mark Stoops said he did not receive a good explanation from the officials about the Rodriguez non-touchdown. And this is not to say the missed call cost the Cats the game. For one thing, Wilson needed to throw the ball away and settle for the field goal instead of throwing it into traffic. And Kentucky went on to make other costly errors — two fumbles and a failed fake punt attempt — on the afternoon. Still, the non-call negated a huge momentum play for the visitors going into halftime.
2. Statistically, Kentucky was the better team
That’s that old iffin’ game, former UK coach Jerry Claiborne used to talk about. Kentucky outgained the eighth-ranked Tigers 384-324. The Cats were 7-1 when outgaining opponents in 2019, the only loss coming at home to Tennessee. But aside from Kentucky’s errors, Auburn made the big plays when it needed big plays.
Wide receiver Seth Williams made the biggest plays of all. The 6-foot-3 receiver was too much for UK to handle, even LSU transfer Kelvin Joseph, who drew the unenviable assignment of covering Williams most of the day. The junior caught six passes for 112 yards and two scores. The first TD was a leaping catch near the back of the end zone in which quarterback Bo Nix’s throw went just over the fingertips of a UK defender. Williams’ second TD came when he all but plucked the ball off Joseph’s back in the left corner of the end zone.
In the first half, Kentucky put together drives that lasted 11, 10, 9 and 11 plays, yet managed to score just seven points. Wilson’s failure to hook up with Clevan Thomas on a fourth-and-3 killed one drive. A holding penalty on tight end Keaton Upshaw helped put the brakes on another. Then there was the missed call on the Rodriguez goal-line run and subsequent interception.
Bottom line: It’s tough to win SEC games when you (a) don’t cash in opportunities and (b) lose the turnover battle. Kentucky turned the ball over three times — Auburn’s last two scoring drives covered 23 and 27 yards — while failing to force a single Auburn turnover. Defensive coordinator Brad White said he wanted to see his defense make more big plays this year. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen Saturday.
3. The all-in SEC schedule is going to be an all-in grind
OK, Kentucky is 0-1. But the Cats get an 0-1 Ole Miss next week at Kroger Field, right? Well, yes. In Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss debut, the Rebels’ lost 51-35 to visiting Florida on Saturday. There’s a “but” coming, because you knew there would be a “but” coming.
Ole Miss gained 613 yards on what was supposed to be a formidable Todd Grantham defense at Florida. The Rebels rushed for 170 yards and threw for 443. Quarterback Matt Corral was 22 of 31 through the air for 395 yards and three touchdowns with just one interception.
Think of Kiffin what you will. He rubbed the rest of the league the wrong way his one year at Tennessee, then got fired on the tarmac of an airport at USC. But Kiffin has proven he knows how to put up points, whether as the offensive coordinator at Alabama — while being yelled at by Nick Saban — or the head coach at Florida Atlantic, his gig before coming to Oxford.
Like just about every other team in the SEC, Ole Miss will be tough to deal with next Saturday. Thanks to a 10-game conference schedule, there won’t be any breathers for any of the SEC teams, Kentucky included. Very much included. Welcome to 2020.
Next game
Ole Miss at Kentucky
When: 4 p.m. Saturday
Where: Kroger Field (limited spectators)
TV: SEC Network
Records: Ole Miss 0-1, Kentucky 0-1
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Series: Ole Miss leads 28-14-1
Last meeting: Ole Miss won 37-34 on Nov. 4, 2017, in Lexington.
This story was originally published September 26, 2020 at 6:53 PM.
