Missouri had a lot of fun breaking a five-game losing streak to UK Saturday. (SEC Photo)
At Tennessee the UK football team trotted on the field to play an opponent that approached the game with a lackadaisical “don’t worry, we’ve got this” attitude. The Volunteers looked at past history — 17 wins in a row in Knoxville — and said, “No need to sweat, it’s Kentucky.” The Volunteers were drubbed in every phase of the game and lost 34-7. It wasn’t as close as the score indicated.
This past Saturday Kentucky trotted out onto the Missouri Tigers’ fieldand said, “Don’t worry, we got this. After all, it’s Missouri. We’ve beaten them five times in a row. Here comes number six”
Kentucky was drubbed in every phase of the game. They were out coached, out played in effort, out schemed on offense and defense and showed that they still don’t understand what it takes to win in the SEC. Sure, they say all the right things like, “The streak doesn’t matter”, ” or “we have to come ready to play for every game” but they don’t believe it.
That should never happen on a team that returns 17 starters who are predominantly juniors and seniors. That shouldn’t happen with a coaching staff that has been in place for several years and a head coach who has coached at Kentucky for seven plus years. We shouldn’t see that kind of anemic play calling from an offensive coordinator that has spent a couple of decades in the SEC.
I know that one might argue that they are just kids — 18 to 22 year old kids that don’t understand the importance of consistent preparation and execution week after week. I might buy that argument except I see other teams in the SEC providing consistent effort and execution on the field.
I saw a freshman quarterback for Missouri shred the UK defense for 201 yards passing on 21 of 30 passes while his running backs gained an additional 220 yards on the ground. I saw a team with a 1-3 record come out with a fire to compete, a determination to win and a game plan that allowed them to do that.
On the other hand I saw a Kentucky team that looked a lot like the Tennessee Volunteers from the previous Saturday. Poor game plan, no effort, unorganized on offense, playing unproductive players at key times in the game, defense that couldn’t get off the field on third down and ultimately a defense that was worn down in the fourth quarter and dominated at the line of scrimmage.
I saw a Missouri coaching staff that baited Kentucky into throwing the ball to start the game, immediately creating several three-and-outs for the UK offense that started the downward spiral of the defense having to spend an unbelievable amount of time on the field. Missouri ran 92 offensive plays during the game. Kentucky normally runs 60 to 65 offensive plays in a game. Against Missouri the Cats ran 36. That means the UK defense had to play the equivalent of a game and a half on Saturday because of the ineptitude of the UK offensive play calling and execution.
And there was plenty of blame to go around. The Big Blue Wall looked like a leaky dike, the quarterback play looked to be, at best, confused about what play to run in a run-pass option offense and when the ball was thrown accurately to a receiver they were as likely to drop it as catch it.
Allowing your opponent the opportunity to run 92 offensive plays is a recipe for disaster and Kentucky sure cooked up their own version of one on Saturday.
So where do we go from here? Saturday’s game against Georgia would appear to be a gigantic mismatch. The Bulldogs are coming to town after a week off facing a Kentucky team that, after five straight weeks of SEC football, is emotionally and physically beat up. The SEC office did UK no favors by flip-flopping the Missouri and Georgia games but at the risk of sounding like Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt making excuses, the schedule is what it is and you have to play each game as it comes up on the schedule.
So coach Mark Stoops, the coaching staff and the entire roster of players need to do some deep soul searching. They need to decide if they are willing to put in the week long effort that it will take to beat a team or two on their schedule that at this point would seem to be prohibitive favorites — like a Georgia or Florida — or do they want to play out the rest of the year, hope they win a game or two and call it a season.
The coaching staff will also need to decide if, at 2-3, with only a couple of winnable games left on the schedule are they still playing for this year or for next season also. That decision could have major ramifications for the seasons to come knowing that you have two four-star quarterbacks sitting on the bench as your team struggles to put a credible offense on the field. If Terry Wilson continues to struggle throwing the ball consistently and can’t generate any offense running the ball Kentucky will be much more one dimensional than they were last season with Lynn Bowden Jr playing quarterback.
Just as we have seen younger players step into larger roles in the defensive line, linebacking group and secondary we should also see some of those talented younger players receive more snaps on the offensive side of the ball.
And no, I’m not suggesting that by playing younger guys on offense all the problems will be solved. But I am suggesting that a junior or senior player still needs to earn their time on the field based off their production, not their class level. If they can’t play with desire and passion, they don’t need to play.
And it’s the coaches job to find out who those players are and get them on the field. So far, they haven’t done a very good job at that.
— Keith Peel
