After a 4-0 start and a Top 10 ranking in the AP poll, Kentucky was discussed as part of the College Football Playoff picture.

Two weeks later, the Wildcats could be in freefall, and the path to stop the slide is pretty treacherous.

Losing to Ole Miss, while difficult to stomach, wasn’t really a slide from preseason expectations. The Wildcats were nearly a touchdown underdog in Oxford and were literally any one of a half-dozen mistakes away from a hard-fought road win.

But then Will Levis got injured. When news that Kentucky’s senior quarterback was questionable for Saturday’s matchup against South Carolina surfaced on Wednesday, head coach Mark Stoops and company went into damage-control mode.

No, Levis hadn’t been ruled out, Stoops clarified on Thursday. Maybe he could play.

Considering that Levis appeared on Saturday afternoon in a walking boot, it was probably pretty certain around Kentucky’s program that the QB would not play. But the performance that followed against South Carolina looked more like the idea of Levis sitting had surfaced 5 minutes before kickoff.

After all, the game’s first play was a debacle in which Kentucky apparently was trying to run an end-around to Barion Brown, which turned into a fumble returned by South Carolina to the UK 2. The Gamecocks scored on the next play, and in many ways it never got much better for Kentucky.

Yes, the Wildcats defense forced a couple turnovers, and backup quarterback Kaiya Sheron threw a 2nd-quarter touchdown pass to tight end Jordan Dingle. But Kentucky played snakebit football all night.

Among the lowlights were a missed field goal, a blocked punt, multiple procedure penalties and 9 tackles for loss allowed for a total of minus-72 yards. A South Carolina defense that had amassed 4 sacks in 5 games, including wins over East Carolina and an FCS South Carolina State team, had 6 sacks alone against Kentucky.

As tempting as it is to write off Kentucky’s struggles as the product of Levis’ injury and some bad luck, after 6 games this Wildcats team clearly has some massive problems. First among them is that this is Kentucky’s worst offensive line since probably 2013, when Stoops inherited Ohio Valley Conference-level talent from Joker Phillips.

The difference is that Stoops and Vince Marrow recruited these players and have had a couple of years, sometimes more, to develop them into serviceable offensive linemen. Yes, the untimely illness and death of offensive line coach John Schlarman has had a negative effect. But Schlarman was probably turning over in his grave after his former group’s performance against South Carolina.

Kentucky has one of the SEC’s best quarterbacks in Levis, returned All-SEC running back Chris Rodriguez, who is among the top half-dozen backs in UK history, added standout wide receiver Tayvion Robinson and freshmen future star wideouts Dane Key and Brown. And yet the Wildcats are absolutely stuck in the mud on offense.

Talking before the Ole Miss game, Stoops mentioned his strong rushing attacks in recent years and joked that nobody appreciated Kentucky’s ground game in the past. But Big Blue Nation certainly appreciates the Big Blue Wall that paved the way for a couple seasons of football excellence despite some ho-hum skill-position players. That group seems as gone as Coach Schlarman, sadly.

The unexpected loss to a serviceable but never-spectacular South Carolina team might toss Kentucky back to the SEC’s middle of the pack, seeking a Music City Bowl berth and a 7-5 record.

Of course, there’s still plenty of football ahead. But in order to take down upcoming foe Mississippi State, much less Tennessee or Georgia, Kentucky has to find a functional offensive line, limit negative plays and crucial mistakes, and put together a complete game.

Stranger things have happened, particularly in the SEC in 2022. But 2 weeks ago, Kentucky was thinking about the Playoff.

And now the Wildcats are just hoping to stop a downward slide that is threatening to ruin their season.