Can this Kentucky team keep the winning momentum going?

Kentucky linebacker Jordan Wright and the UK defense need another big effort against LSU Saturday night. (UK Athletics Photo)

You know one thing that has been consistent in watching Kentucky Football compete in the SEC for more than 60 years? Inconsistency. Dating all the way back to the 1960s I can remember watching Kentucky Football be incredibly inconsistent from quarter to quarter, game to game, and season to season. Time and again Kentucky teams would reach the precipice of greatness and then slip back to average because of inconsistency.

Even most recently we have seen the Mark Stoops’ version of the Wildcats perform well offensively in the first series of each game this season and then inexplicably shut down for most of the rest of the game or in the case of the defense we have seen the Cats allow a team like FCS level UT Chattanooga to seem to score at will while racking up big plays and 23 points in-game and then watch Kentucky shut down an offensive juggernaut like Florida by allowing them only 13 points in 60 minutes (three of which came on a short field from a Will Levis interception).

It’s the inconsistencies that drive coaches crazy, and if you’re like me they drive fans and journalists crazy also.

Mark Stoops said as much at his most recent LSU-week press conference. He said that Kentucky has been close in the past when it comes to winning big games. Games against the Florida Gators that slipped away in the fourth quarter because the Cats couldn’t hold a lead. They couldn’t consistently perform on offense and defense in the fourth quarter like they had earlier in the game when they built a lead.

In discussing the Florida game Stoops said, “It was really good for myself and our team to deliver. We’d been close so many times and we’ve done a lot of good things. But to have a packed house, No. 10 ranked team in the country, Florida who has been kind of a nemesis for our fan base for 30-some years, well before I got here. It meant a lot for our fanbase. I was grateful we got the win. Want to keep the momentum going now.”

Notice two key statements in there. “We’ve been close before” and “Want to keep the momentum going now.” Stoops gets it. He talks about it all the time. The daily grind of practice preparation day after day, the mentality of not flinching and instead, playing the next play, regardless of what transpired on the play before. That dirty word — consistency.

That’s sometimes hard to do when a person is dealing with 18 to 22-year-olds. Let’s be honest, it’s hard to achieve when dealing with mature adults. One only needs to look at all the unused gym memberships and thighmasters stored in people’s attics to see that consistency is a problem for everyone.

Concerning Kentucky’s game this week with LSU, Stoops is watching for that old demon of inconsistency called laziness or overconfidence or continued celebration to rear its ugly head. It’s happened at Kentucky before. Win a few games and all of a sudden the players (and the fans) begin to believe it’s easy. It’s not. Many inexplicable losses in the past by great Kentucky teams have proven that.

Stoops believes his team is past that. He said, “Every time we get in a good position, we learn from the previous experience. Our team is mature. I can tell by the way we were locked in to the meeting on Monday, they understand whether we win, lose, feel good about the way we play or feel like we fell short, we gotta get back to work. It’s a new week. Hit the reset button. I have no reason to believe this team won’t do anything but go back to work.”

And that is good news for every Cat fan everywhere because that has been the downfall of several very good UK teams in the past. Forget who you played last week. Forget whether you won a big game or lost a heartbreaker. Get back to work. Improve in the areas that need it and come out and play four consistent quarters the next Saturday.

If that doesn’t happen it’s very easy to end up on ESPN SportsCenter as this week’s big upset.

“I feel like we’re very hungry and we know when you have LSU coming to town you better buckle up your chin strap real quick and get back to work,” Stoops said. “We need to continue the work or it’s going to be very short-lived. We know that. You have every seven days to get humbled in this business. We’ve very hungry and we had a great start to the week.”

Dallas Cowboy Hall of Fame Quarterback Roger Staubach said, “In any team sport, the best teams have consistency and chemistry.” It seems like this UK team has demonstrated their chemistry, now they need to show they also have consistency.

If they can, great things are in store in the future. If they can’t, it will leave a lot of fans and media personnel alike scratching their heads and mumbling “woulda, coulda, shoulda.”