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Kentucky’s big hopes for a season-opening win at Auburn got derailed more by UK’s mistakes Saturday than anything else. Certainly Auburn quarterback Bo Nix (16 of 27 passing for 233 yards and three scores with no interceptions) and receiver Seth Williams (six catches for 112 yards and two scores) played a huge part in the win but so did UK mistakes.
The Wildcats’ offense had a 73-yard scoring drive early in the second half to cut the lead to 15-13 but after that until a desperation drive to end the game the Cats did little on offense. What made that so frustrating was that UK opened the game with a 93-yard, 11-play scoring drive to take the lead where it looked like it could dominate the line of scrimmage.
But mistakes just haunted UK.
— At the end of the first half it did appear that Chris Rodriguez got into the end zone for a touchdown that would have given UK a lead. Instead he was ruled short. “I don’t understand it either. He was clearly in. I really can’t get a good explanation. I didn’t really get good explanations all day. That was a big swing,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said.
Yes it was because on the next play quarterback Terry Wilson couldn’t get in from the one and the following play he threw an interception that was returned 100 yards for a score only to be wiped out by a targeting call.
— Kentucky was driving in the second quarter on the possession before Rodriguez got stopped when a holing penalty wiped out a nice gain deep into Auburn territory and was followed by a sack that took UK out of field goal range.
— When UK scored to cut the lead to 15-13, the Cats went for the two-point conversion in the third quarter but Wilson deliberately threw the ball out of bounds.
— Kentucky was down two points when Wilson ran in the fourth quarter and lost the fumble.
— Punter Max Duffy tried to run out of punt formation in Auburn territory with UK down nine points and didn’t get close to the first down.
— Freshman DeMarcus Harris made a catch in the red zone late in the game and then fumbled.
“Disappointed with outcome,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said. “We did some really good things, did things we have to improve on. Made too many mistakes to beat a good Auburn team on the road.
“Two-three-four plays can swing a game and certainly about a five-minute span where we turned it over with a fumble and fake punt did that.”
Wilson was 24 of 37 passing for 239 yards and one touchdown with one interception and ran 13 times for 42 yards in his first game back since his season-ending knee injury in game two in 2019. Stoops thought he saw a lot of good things but also plenty he could do better.
“I think the turnovers were a big piece of it for him,” Stoops said. “That’s hard to simulate back in practice. That is critical area he needs to improve on, secure the football in the run game and the interception late in first half was a bad decision.”
However, Stoops has no doubt Wilson will be better in game two against Mississippi.
“I don’t think there is any doubt he will build on this quickly and be ready to play next week,” Stoops said. “I thought there were a lot of positive things he did.”
