Three takeaways from Kentucky football’s blowout loss to No. 1-ranked Alabama
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Game day: Alabama 63, Kentucky 3
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Alabama football game at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
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Three takeaways from Kentucky football’s 63-3 loss to No. 1-ranked Alabama on Saturday in Tuscaloosa:
1. An embarrassing blowout revisits Kentucky football
These kind of games have a tendency to pop up in Kentucky football history. There was the 54-3 loss at South Carolina in 2011. There was the 63-5 loss at Florida in 2008. There was the 65-0 loss at Florida in 1996. There was the 52-0 loss at Tennessee in 1994. And don’t forget the 73-7 loss at Florida in 1994.
Now add this 60-point beatdown by the top-ranked Crimson TIde to the list. Before Saturday, the worst loss in the Mark Stoops era was almost mild by comparison — a 59-17 thrashing by Georgia on Nov. 23, 2013, Stoops’ first season as the Kentucky head coach. Unfortunately for Kentucky, the Cats had eclipsed that by the end of the third quarter when down 49-3 at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Stoops said afterward he did worry about the perception of the final score. “It’s not a good look,” said the coach. “It’s not where you want to be. We are all over that.”
But Stoops also gave credit to Alabama, and you have to give credit to Alabama. This is a really good Alabama football team, especially on offense. Mac Jones is a terrific quarterback with a terrific running back in Najee Harris, an excellent offensive line and a treasure trove of playmaking receivers, led by DeVonta Smith. Alabama’s previous scores this season: 38-19, 52-24, 63-48, 41-24. 48-17 and 41-0. Now add a 63-3 to the list. Give credit where credit is due.
2. Now, after the blow out, throw it out
In case you hadn’t heard, the number of missing Kentucky players was in double digits. In his postgame press conference, Stoops alluded to the fact that the team had practiced all week with several players only to find out on Friday they would not be able to make the trip because of either testing positive for COVID-19 or contact tracing.
Among the missing was the team’s best running back in Chris Rodriguez, a starting guard in Luke Fortner, a starting tight end in Justin Rigg, a starting linebacker and leading tackler in Jamin Davis and an All-American punter in Max Duffy. Not only does Duffy punt, he holds on kicks. And the Cats twice messed up the operation on field goal attempts. On the first, the snap was fired past the outstretched arms of the holder. On the second, the holder had difficulty getting a wobbly snap down in time for Matt Ruffolo, whose 42-yard kick went wide right.
Kentucky actually did some good things in the first half, but when those opportunities turned up empty, the Cats were crushed by the avalanche. By the second half, Stoops’ troops had let go of the rope, as John Calipari would say. The question wasn’t would Kentucky lose, but by how much would Kentucky lose.
The key now for Stoops is the balancing act between using Saturday as a teaching tape and telling his team to erase this one from the memory bank. Which brings us to No. 3.
3. COVID-19 is Kentucky’s toughest opponent the rest of the way
Before Saturday, UK had managed pretty well the art of playing football during a coronavirus pandemic. They had avoided any huge outbreaks. They had not been forced to postpone a game because of low numbers. They had missed just a player or two here or there, or at least that we had noticed. The program has chosen not to reveal by number or name its COVID-19 case list.
That change a little last week, but a lot on Saturday. Finding out you have a virus outbreak just as you are going on the road to play the No. 1 team in the country is, to say the least, bad timing. Especially when the team you are facing is this particular Alabama team.
Now the Cats are scheduled to travel to Gainesville next Saturday to play No. 6 Florida, a 38-17 victor over Vanderbilt on Saturday. There is no way of knowing how many, if any, of the players missing at Alabama will be back for Florida. And there is no way of knowing if there will be more players added to the list.
After all, the number of COVID-19 cases around the country continue to rise. And we have Thanksgiving coming up. It has been a long, hard season. Keeping his team healthy, with a positive frame of mind, with two games to go, might be Mark Stoops’ biggest challenge of all.
This story was originally published November 21, 2020 at 8:22 PM.
