Kentucky football came into the game desperately needing to regain some of the lost momentum. South Carolina is a bad football team with a dorky coach so it should have been a good opportunity. But poorly coached teams find ways to lose football games and once again Kentucky did just that.
Offense
Offensively, Kentucky was a mix of incompetent and soft. For reasons that I still don’t quite understand Stoops has decided to completely abandon the identity that he built with a physical OL and soul-crushing RBs in favor of pass happy nonsense. Devin Leary was 17/34 for 171 yards and 1 TD and 1 back-breaking INT inside the redzone (he also had a horrendous fumble in the 4th quarter). Quick math tells us that is a paltry 5 yards per attempt against one of the worst defenses in the conference. A truly embarrassing performance and frankly some jobs should be on the line this morning for allowing it to happen.
Leary was not the only problem on the night though. The WR room once again did not cover themselves in glory. Dane Key had a crucial fumble inside the 40-yard line. This worst part of his fumble was that it came right after the Leary INT in the endzone. Back-to-back drives ending in turnovers inside Gamecock territory cost Kentucky at least 6 points.
We also need to talk about Barion Brown. I’m sure he’s a good kid and we’ve seen flashes of the talent but Kentucky has catered it’s offense to accommodate him (and Key) and he has not delivered. He rarely makes incredible catches despite Kentucky routinely throwing 50/50 balls up to him and he completely disappears for large stretches of the game. It’s not good enough for any level and it’s certainly not good enough to have an offensive system catered to your strengths. The only WR/TE who should leave the game this weekend with their head held high is Izayah Cummings, who filled in for the injured Kattus and did really well.
Even more confusing was that Kentucky had success running the football and they just stopped doing it. Ray Davis had 12 carries for 61 yards (over 5 yards per carry) and reserve RB Ramon Jefferson had 6 carries for 60 yards (over 8 yards per carry). Instead of leaning into that advantage against a bad defensive front Kentucky just went away from it completely. Even when leading 14-10 late in the 2nd half. I don’t know who is responsible for that but there needs to be some accountability.
Defense
A lot of fans are rushing to blame DC Brad White for this loss and I get the frustration. Let me start this section by saying when you hold an SEC team to 17 points at their place you should win the football game. The Kentucky defense held South Carolina to 257 total yards and made them completely one dimensional most of the game (only 50 yards rushing). That is good enough.
Unfortunately, with the Kentucky offense deciding to be traveling circus Kentucky needed its defense to be perfect. It was far from that. Particularly Andru Phillips, who was repeatedly harassed all night. South Carolina is bad but, in the SEC, even the bad teams have dudes who will play on Sundays. The Gamecocks have one high level player in Xavier Leggette and Kentucky allowed him to have 9 catches for 94 yards and 2 TD.
We also must talk about the inability to get any meaningful pressure on Rattler. The South Carolina OL gives up a lot of sacks, but the Kentucky defense was only able to get 2, despite bringing some pressure. The players just failed to get home or took awful angles that allowed Rattler to escape.
Despite the flaws we shouldn’t forget that the Kentucky defense did enough to win the game. They were let down by the offense allowing a bad team to hang around.
Special Teams
Wilson Berry was fine. He had a great punt in the 4th quarter to pin the Gamecocks inside the 5. This allowed Kentucky to get the ball back with good field position and a chance to at least tie the game. Leary of course promptly fumbled but Berry did his job.
Alex Raynor was 2/2 on XP but didn’t get the chance to attempt a FG.
There were no glaring coverage goofs but we did allow a 15-yard return that could have been costly. Thankfully the defense got a big sack from Oxendine to make up for it.
Final Thoughts
This loss is going to fester for a while, I think. South Carolina has been the epitome of arrogance for most Kentucky fans for almost a decade. They’ve accomplished little outside of a few years where a HOF coach decided to spend his retirement in a less stressful environment. We used to mock programs like South Carolina for thinking they’re better than us just by existing.
Well now Kentucky has become that program. We believed our own hype. Stoops decided to throw away a culture that led to us jumping from the worst team in the SEC to middle of the pack in the SEC. Kentucky’s best performance of the season came when we went back to the old-school. A “we’re going to run right through your chest and there is nothing you can do to stop it” mentality.
Stoops built teams that were tough, smart, and carried an “Us against the world” chip on their shoulder. That is gone. We have players who are more interested in looking tough and talking trash than making winning plays. We used to do both. Players and their families are openly Tweeting about wanting more touches. This isn’t the Kentucky Football that Mark Stoops built and got fans to fall in love with. I don’t know how or why he’s lost it but he gets paid a lot of money to figure it out. Kentucky once again has a big opportunity next week to restore some dignity back in the program.
