Three takeaways from Kentucky football’s loss at Missouri
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Game day: Missouri 20, Kentucky 10
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Missouri football game at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium in Columbia, Mo.
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Three takeaways from Kentucky football’s 20-10 loss to the Missouri Tigers in Columbia:
1. How much did the absence of John Schlarman affect UK?
Schlarman is Kentucky’s offensive line coach, directing a unit that has earned high praise for the job it not only did last year but through the first four games of the 2020 season. But Schlarman is also battling liver cancer, and was not able to make the trip to Columbia’s for Saturday’s game.
UK head coach Mark Stoops said afterward he thought Schlarman’s absence did have an emotional effect on the Cats, but that it’s a situation the Cats have to respond to and play well in honoring their offensive line coach. Senior center Drake Jackson said he felt like Schlarman had coached the team up during the week and that offensive coordinator Eddie Gran made a good adjustment with the line during the game.
Still, you have to wonder how much of a toll Schlarman’s fight has taken on the players he coaches every day and to a man have voiced their admiration and love for their line coach. “He’s taught me how to be a man,” offensive tackle Landon Young said this week, adding that, “He’s fighting for his life every single day.”
For whatever reason, Kentucky could get nothing going offensively all day. The Cats gained just 145 yards of total offense, the fewest since the 2011 team gained just 96 yards at South Carolina in a 54-3 loss to the Gamecocks. Kentucky was outgained by 275 yards, the widest margin since Alabama outgained Stoops’ 2016 team by 327 yards (488-166) in Tuscaloosa.
Missouri came into the game ranked 10th in pass defense, allowing 307.7 yards per game. And it appeared that Gran thought he could throw on the Tigers, coming out with consecutive pass calls on the first three plays of the game. The first two fell complete; the third came up 4 yards short of the first down. By game’s end, the Cats rushed for 98 yards on just 23 carries. They ran all of 36 offensive plays.
2. This game will humble you in a hurry
A week ago at this time, the Cats were riding high, coming off a 34-7 win at Tennessee, the program’s first triumph in Knoxville since 1984. Pats on the back were universal. A week later, the Cats turned up flat in Columbia, losing to Missouri for the first time since 2014. What goes up must come down?
“We can’t come off a big win and think they’re going to hand it to us,” Jackson said. “Coach Stoops talked about that all week.”
Stoops himself said he thought he had his team prepared, but “I knew (Missouri) was ready to go. They had a week off. (Missouri’s game last week with Vandy was postponed because of COVID.) I knew they were tired of hearing about losing to us. We didn’t respond and they did.”
Also from Stoops: “We were beaten in every phase.”
That included turnovers. Kentucky did not force a single turnover, same as the first two games of the season, both losses. The Cats intercepted six passes in the 24-2 win our Mississippi State. They intercepted three more and recovered a fumble in the win at Tennessee. Saturday, they lost the turnover battle 1-0 and lost the game.
3. It doesn’t get any easier from here on out
The Cats now sit 2-3 with Georgia coming to Kroger Field next Saturday. The Bulldogs have had an extra week to get over the sting of last Saturday’s 41-24 loss at Alabama. They are also 7-0 against Stoops, winning 21-0 last year in Athens.
Kentucky also has a question to answer about its situation at quarterback. Starter Terry Wilson was yanked in favor of backup Joey Gatewood on the UK’s fourth series. On the strength of a 29-yard A.J. Rose, Gatewood did lead the visitors to a field goal in the second quarter. But he was ineffective after that and Stoops/Gran went back to Wilson in the third quarter.
Truth be told, this team could use a bye week. The offense is searing for answers. The defense has to be tired after five straight weeks of facing SEC offenses. Thanks to UK’s inability to stop the Tigers on third down, Mizzou had a 21-play drive on Saturday. Eli Drinkwitz’s team ran 92 offensive plays.
And after Georgia, and after that much-needed bye week, road games at Florida and Alabama await.
It’s one thing to know you’re going to experience the grind of a 10-game, all-SEC schedule. It’s another thing to actually experience it.
“I’m not going to lie to you, this is a pretty different schedule than the normal schedule, I’ll say that,” safety Yusuf Corker said. “Every day we’ve just got to show up motivated and ready to work. You can’t slack off on any team, especially in this conference. So we’ve got to come ready to play, especially for next week.
This story was originally published October 24, 2020 at 9:35 PM.
