The good news for Kentucky Saturday — it won the coin toss. The bad news — it deferred and let Louisville have the football. The Cardinals and quarterback Lamar Jackson shredded the Kentucky defense from start to finish while demolishing a demoralized Kentucky 44-17. Jackson, the 2016 Heisman Trophy winner, ran for 156 yards and completed 15 of 21 passes for 216 yards and two scores to help the Cardinals amass 562 yards.
For a UK fan base already teetering in its support of a team that had won seven games, this fiasco did nothing to change the perception that Kentucky was only a mediocre team playing a soft schedule.
Louisville had 196 yards — in the first quarter. By halftime, it had 353.
Kentucky’s only offense was sophomore running back Benny Snell. He had 100 yards in the first half and 140 midway of the third quarter. But it is hard to keep running down three or four scores. Yet he finished with 211 yards and two scores on 29 carries because he played with an effort and purpose that few of his teammates matched.
Even worse for Kentucky, the team seemed to self implode. Early in the game, Kentucky linebacker Jordan Jones and Jackson seemed to exchange punches in a sideline melee that was on the verge of really getting nasty. Neither player was ejected.
In the third period, Jones got personal fouls called on him on consecutive plays and two plays later Denzil Ware was flagged for an unsportsmanlike penalty. Jones also walked away from the UK defensive huddle on the sideline at least once and seemed to shove UK receivers coach Lamar Thomas after the first half skirmish.
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops admitted he was disappointed with his team’s effort and actions.
“Long day at the office today. Not a very good feeling from the opening possession to the end,” Stoops said. “Not a very good effort on any of our parts. We did not play very good. We did not coach very good. We certainly did not play with the discipline and the character that this team has. That’s not acceptable. That’s not okay. I was very disappointed in that. That needs to be addressed and improve.”
Say amen Kentucky fans who made it clear on Twitter — in the first half — that they were embarrassed by the team’s lack of heart, motivation, tackling and discipline.
Here’s a sample of tweets from average UK fans on my timeline:
— “I didn’t have much confidence today bc Louisville has better players and coaches, but laying down and getting drubbed is pathetic. Receivers running wide open on every play.”
— “About as pitiful a performance as I have witnessed in a long time.”
— “Looked like a complete lack of effort. Just sad and pathetic.”
— “The UK Defense didn’t show up, so hard to only blame fans (for not showing up).”
__ “The lesson is that UK’s defense has been horrible and undisciplined and Stoops is ultimately responsible.”
Then this was perhaps my favorite UK fan tweet of the day:
— “Snell should punch each UK defender in the mouth! Defense is embarrassing.”
Larry Glover of LarryGloverLive on WVLK Radio is a media member I respect. I think he summed up the feelings of many UK fans well with this tweet: “I think the program is better than it was five years ago but not by a lot. The administration is solidly behind Stoops but fans are clearly not. When you lose the fans, it’s hard to get them back.”
At times, Kentucky fans have been unfairly critical of Stoops who does have consecutive seven-win seasons, a rarity at UK. But he deserves all the heat UK fans want to send his way for his team’s effort Saturday and it’s lack of discipline.
It started Friday night when senior offensive lineman Nick Haynes, a team captain, posted this on Twitter:
“Most of these coaches don’t care about us personally. It’s all about that (pay) check. That’s the one big thing I’ve observed here at UK. They’ll use you up for all your worth and then throw you to the side,” Haynes tweeted.
The shock here is that he has been a pillar of discipline and leadership at UK. But a battle with diabetes this year led to about a 50-pound weight loss and little or no playing time in recent weeks for a player who had started the last two years. Clearly he was frustrated but to tweet that the night before his Senior Day game was a huge red flag for the football program.
The team played with a “don’t care” attitude too much Saturday as well. Fans were wondering what “was wrong with the team” and Stoops better be wondering the same thing before UK plays in a bowl — likely the Liberty Bowl on Dec. 30th.
Stoops said he was notified about Haynes’ tweet and talked to him Friday night. He wouldn’t reveal what was said.
“He can answer for himself (but was not made available to the media after the game). I was disappointed. We had just had one of the best team meetings we had ever had. There were a lot of good vibes in that room (for the meeting),” Stoops said.
“He was rubbed the wrong way by one of our younger coaches after curfew and I will just leave it at that.”
Stoops didn’t think that impacted the way his team played.
“I don’t think any of us like any distractions when we are getting ready for a big game. I can’t answer that. I really don’t think it did. I don’t think that’s the reason this happened today,” Stoops said.
Me either.
What happened Saturday was that Kentucky just got outplayed and outcoached as Stoops said and was never in the game — which was the most disappointing part to so many UK fans.
