The Cats drop another one in epically embarrassing fashion. Has Mark Stoops lost the program?
The Kentucky Wildcats fell to the Florida Gators in Gainesville on Saturday night by a score of 48-20.
The first half went about as bad as it could for Kentucky. The Gators weren’t consistent, but they hit on a few big plays that turned out to be decisive in the long run. The Cats were stopped on the goal line once, and that pretty much summed it up. A big Barion Brown kick return at least kept the game close as Florida took a 27-13 lead into the half.
After the break, the officiating (and camera crew) got even worse. Questionable call after questionable call by both the officials and Kentucky’s coaches gave the Cats no chance. I can’t not mention the touchdown Florida scored when it was a yard short of the goal line, but the Cats were their own worst enemy again.
This season is a lost one.
Next up, the Cats will return home to take on the Auburn Tigers next Saturday night.
The offense was atrocious…again
It begins and ends with Brock Vandagriff. The Georgia transfer has been mediocre at best this season, and he was horrific in this game.
The assumption, or should I say hope, after the South Carolina game was that the quarterback wasn’t that bad—the offensive line was the problem. Well, unfortunately, while the offensive line hasn’t been great, it’s certainly not the biggest problem with this team. That belongs to Vandagriff.
When he doesn’t have time, he panics. When he does have time, he acts like he has no idea what to do with the ball. You can see the occasional flash, but it doesn’t take a football expert to see he’s just not very good.
The running game is okay, but it certainly can’t be relied on. The offensive coordinator makes quarterback changes like that’s his only job, and the play calling has been skeptical, albeit not entirely to blame.
The problem is this team was built to pass the ball, especially with Chip Trayanum out (he returned tonight, kind of), but the running game is the only thing keeping this team afloat. The receivers are talented, but they’re either underutilized or not used correctly. Then, it feels like whenever the Cats get momentum, someone drops a pass.
It’s bad. It’s hard to watch. And it’s getting worse every week.
All systems failure
We’ve become accustomed to the Kentucky offense struggling this season. That’s not a surprise. The bigger problem in this game was how bad the defense was.
The Gators’ starting quarterback, Graham Mertz, went down with a season-ending injury last week, and true freshman DJ Lagway was forced to take the reins. He absolutely embarrassed Kentucky.
The bend-don’t-break defense was in full effect from the start as Florida drove down to the red zone in its first two possessions, but the Cats forced field goals. Kentucky answered, and I assume most of BBN figured the defense would lock in and give the Cats some momentum. They didn’t.
The Gators hit big play after big play as the defense had no answers in this one. Lagway wasn’t the most impressive throughout the game, but it didn’t take many completions to break this game open.
With how bad the offense is, the defense has to be perfect for Kentucky to have any chance. Kentucky was averaging just two scores per game in SEC play coming into this one. No matter how bad the offense was, the defense didn’t even give them a chance. It was an all-systems failure.
Coaching malpractice
As has become commonplace under Mark Stoops, the offensive coordinator has no idea what he’s doing and Stoops has no idea how to make adjustments.
On paper, this is the best Kentucky team Stoops has had. The schedule is a beast, so a 7-5 season seemed reasonable, despite all the talent, but besides the Ole Miss win, Kentucky looks like it’ll be lucky to win one more game this season.
The talent is abundant, but the coaching apparently isn’t. I think Stoops has phoned it in, and it’s obvious to just about everyone who continues to waste four hours every Saturday watching his team play.
It’s fair to wonder if Mark Stoops has lost his program.