Three takeaways from Kentucky football’s loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks
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Game day: South Carolina 24, No. 13 Kentucky 14
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday night’s Kentucky-South Carolina football game at Kroger Field in Lexington.
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Three takeaways from Kentucky football’s 24-14 loss to South Carolina on Saturday night at Kroger Field:
1. Life without Levis isn’t pretty
It was the don’t-go-there question about this Kentucky football team. What happened if Will Levis got hurt? What happened if arguably the most important player on the roster, the quarterback, the leader, the heart and soul of these 2022 Wildcats couldn’t go? Well, know we know.
This isn’t a knock on redshirt freshman quarterback Kaiya Sheron, the former Somerset star who made his first collegiate start on Saturday. Sheron ended up 15 of 27 for 178 yards with two touchdowns and one interception.
Still, Kentucky wasn’t the same team without Levis, who missed the game with a foot injury. After a week of speculation and rumor, the senior appeared at the pregame Cat Walk in a walking boot, then chatted up South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer and other Gamecocks coaches, as well as the SEC Network television crew, while his teammates warmed up.
“He’s still day-to-day,” UK Coach Mark Stoops said after the game.
Without Levis, Kentucky took a chance on the game’s first play that ended in disaster, a lost fumble on a reverse. The Cats ran the ball effectively at times — Chris Rodriguez gained 126 yards on the ground; his third 100-yard game against Gamecocks — but had trouble sustaining drives, thanks to penalties, dropped passes and sacks. The latter is where Sheron’s inexperience showed. He was sacked six times.
With their quarterback on the sideline, the Cats needed to rally. Instead, they looked deflated, especially on the offensive side of the ball. New coordinator Rich Scangarello has yet to get his attack truly humming, and without Levis, the Cats looked tentative and unsure.
On the SEC Network pregame show, Levis said he would be back next week. Stoops wouldn’t go that far in his postgame remarks, but let’s hope the quarterback is correct. Saturday night, the Cats saw what life without Levis is like. It wasn’t pretty.
2. Kentucky’s defense reverses course
Of late, the pattern with coordinator Brad White’s defense has been a slow start followed by a strong finish. It happened at Florida when UK trailed 16-10 at the half, then blanked the Gators in the second half on the way to a 26-16 victory. It happened last week in the Cats’ 22-19 loss at Ole Miss, when the defense allowed two early touchdowns, then held the Rebels to a field goal in the second half.
Saturday night was the opposite. As Kentucky’s offense struggled in the first half, White’s defense kept the home team in the game. It forced a turnover after South Carolina had blocked a Colin Goodfellow punt. For the second straight week, it intercepted a pass inside the final minute of the second quarter. Last week it was Jacquez Jones. This week it was Trevin Wallace.
The third quarter, however, UK’s defense let go of the rope. After taking the second-half kickoff, South Carolina’s Antwane Wells broke a bubble screen 42 yards for a touchdown. Next possession, the Gamecocks used 14 plays to go 70 yards with Mitch Jeter nailing a 32-yard field goal to put South Carolina up 17-7.
It didn’t help that in the fourth quarter, Carolina broke runs of 45 and 24 yards, the latter a TD dash by Jalen Brooks on a jet sweep. After allowing just 90 total yards in the first half, Kentucky gave up 266 in the second.
“For a lot of the game we were efficient,” White said afterward. “Then you get yourself in a third-and-long situation, like last week, you’ve got to find a way to get off. Somebody’s got to make a play.
“We showed what we can be in the first half, but obviously not a good performance in the second half.”
3. Season on the brink?
After a 4-0 start and a climb to No. 7 in the AP poll, the Cats have lost two straight conference games. (Now 4-2 overall, 1-2 in the SEC.) They’re beat up. Levis wasn’t the only one missing Saturday. Starting right offensive tackle Jeremy Flax didn’t play. Linebacker and leading tackler Jacquez Jones is out for an undetermined amount of time. Freshman wideout Dane Key appeared to injure his hand near game’s end. There are other bumps and bruises.
And, oh yeah, Levis.
“No one is going to feel sorry for us,” Stoops said afterward.
Though SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey was in attendance on Saturday, I doubt he’d be willing to postpone next Saturday’s matchup with 5-1 Mississippi State at Kroger Field. A much-needed off week follows. After that, however, comes a trip to red-hot Tennessee, which improved to 5-0 Saturday by spanking LSU 40-13 in Baton Rouge.
Last season, a 6-0 start became 6-3 after losses to Georgia, Mississippi State and Tennessee. Stoops got the ship back afloat after that and his team finished with four straight wins, including the victory over Iowa in the Citrus Bowl.
This is a different team, however, with a different slate ahead. Last year’s offensive line is superior to this year’s line. There’s no Wan’Dale Robinson this year. The defensive line is younger. This team has to play cleaner football to be successful. It can’t survive blocked punts, missed field goals — Matt Ruffolo’s 45-yard attempt hit the left upright after another shaky snap/hold operation — and untimely penalties.
Again, I go back to Levis. The Cats need him back. The hope is he will be behind center when Mike Leach comes to town. If not, well, Mississippi State is a better football team than South Carolina.
This story was originally published October 9, 2022 at 12:56 AM.
