Kentucky football: Stock report after Week 7
For Kentucky football, this season has been — to steal from Yogi Berra and John Fogerty — déjà vu all over again. A season ago, Kentucky opened 4-0, including a win over Florida, to rise to No. 7 in the nation before a tough road loss to a good Ole Miss team was followed by a flat and listless home loss to South Carolina. When Kentucky unstacked that train wreck, the Wildcats ended up 7-5 and playing Iowa without most of their best players in a lame-duck Music City Bowl.
This year, Kentucky opened 5-0, including a win over Florida, before losing on the road to a better than very good Georgia team. But Saturday’s home loss to a decent but not shockingly brilliant Missouri squad conjures up possibilities of a 7-5 finish — or worse — in 2023.
Player of the Week: Ray Davis
At some point, Liam Coen and the Kentucky offense would do well to just be what they are — a team with a very talented and versatile running back who can carry the mail for the Wildcats. Davis had 76 1st-quarter rushing yards and 1 receiving touchdown as UK jumped out to a 14-0 edge. For the game, his stats were more humble, as Davis posted totals of 20 carries for 128 yards and 2 receptions for another 11 yards. That said, Davis contributed almost half of UK’s total yards.
A season ago, Kentucky struggled all season on the ground, rushing for just 116 yards per game on 3.3 yards per carry. The 2023 edition of the Wildcats — largely thanks to Davis — has been significantly better in the ground game. But the group could use more work if Kentucky wants to play in a bowl game, particularly one somewhere warmer than the state of Tennessee.
Freshman of the Week: Anthony Brown-Stephens, wide receiver
He struggled with consistency — as did UK’s entire passing game — but Brown-Stephens did haul in his 1st career touchdown with a 4-yard grab that gave Kentucky the lead again late in the 3rd quarter. Given the issues of Barion Brown and Dane Key — both of whom looked much better a season ago — it’s not unrealistic to expect to see more and more of Brown-Stephens in the 2nd half of this season.
Biggest concern: Did Stoops hit the ceiling?
Considering where Kentucky football has been, a Wildcats team going to its bye week at 5-2 seems like the sort of thing that would be cause for celebration. But unless this squad flips the script after the break, this feels like 2 consecutive seasons of talented but overrated UK teams. The 2022 and 2023 Wildcats were and are entirely capable of winning 8, 9 or 10 games, but they have simply failed to play disciplined and intelligent football.
Mark Stoops built his program on defense, a ground game and not giving games away. As Kentucky adds talented freshmen and experienced transfer portal standouts, the Wildcats feel like they may be losing their blue-collar identity. Has the coach who led UK to 10-win seasons in 2018 and 2021 simply already hit his ceiling and started a fall back to earth? It’s a reasonable question to ponder.
Developing trend: Not so special teams
Another facet of the past 2 disappointing seasons has been some real special teams struggles. Kentucky addressed its placekicking issues by adding Georgia Southern transfer Alex Raynor — and that has been a good move. Veteran Chance Poore has been solid on kickoffs.
But punter Wilson Berry has been absolutely awful, hitting 26- and 32-yard punts in Saturday’s game. Meanwhile, Kentucky CB Andru Phillips was absolutely toasted on a fake punt touchdown that everyone in the stadium except Phillips seemed to see coming. Given the struggles of UK’s passing game, the Wildcats don’t need to be hemorrhaging yards — and even points — on special teams.
Key stat: 89
That’s the total yardage that Kentucky’s passing game accounted for Saturday. Disappointing super senior QB Devin Leary had a pedestrian 14-for-27 day for a mere 120 yards, which is 4.4 yards per pass. But add in the 31 yards Kentucky lost on the 4 sacks it surrendered on dropbacks. That actually yields less than 3 yards per play on passes.
With an experienced veteran QB in Leary and sophomore standouts Brown and Key working beside super senior Tayvion Robinson, Kentucky’s passing game was supposed to be the team’s strength. In fact, it’s a glaring weakness. Leary has been inaccurate and has shown iffy judgment, and both Brown and Key have struggled to catch the passes that do end up in their vicinity.
Missouri punter Luke Bauer connected on a 39-yard touchdown pass on a fake punt. Sadly, that play left him in the vicinity of being as productive as UK’s entire passing game.
First impression about a bye week: Who are these Wildcats?
It’s time to get past beauty pageants. Kentucky has plenty of big-time talent producing subpar results. Whether it’s getting some new wrinkles in the game plan, helping players get healthier or more mentally ready, or just making some personnel moves, it’s time for the Wildcats to find the fire that has disappeared in the past 2 weeks. That might mean some big-name (and big NIL price tag) players spending some time on the bench.
On the other hand, Kentucky seemed to badly miss linebacker Trevin Wallace and defensive back Jalen Geiger, who were out with injuries. Offensive lineman Jager Burton was missing a week after racking up multiple costly penalties against Georgia.
It’s soul-searching time for Kentucky. The back end of the UK schedule includes a pair of road games against underwhelming Mississippi State and South Carolina squads. And while ranked foes Tennessee, Alabama and Louisville will all likely be favored over the Wildcats, there’s no reason Kentucky couldn’t pull together a 3-2 or 4-1 run to finish the season. But it’ll take some changes. A couple more weeks of untimely penalties, a missing-in-action passing attack and fundamental errors could leave UK staring 5-7 in the face.