Just a season ago, Kentucky football was in a good place.

In the 1st season in a long time not dominated by 3 yards and a cloud of dust, the Wildcats offense was led by current Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Liam Coen, who turned promising quarterback Will Levis into a potential NFL Draft pick, running a system that was actually good at both running and passing.

Kentucky averaged 32 points per game, Chris Rodriguez gained over 1,000 yards on the ground, and Levis was a dual-threat standout.

The Wildcats won 10 games a year ago, the 2nd time in 4 seasons under Mark Stoops that they reached that plateau. As Kentucky’s previous 10-win season (and winning SEC record) before that period came in 1977, there was optimism about the direction of the program under Stoops. He was set to become its career wins leader early in the 2022 season, Rodriguez and Levis were both coming back, and Kentucky was primed for another big season and an opportunity to actually stake out 2nd place in the SEC East.

Or not.

The 2022 campaign hasn’t been that season.

Levis has been injured and inconsistent. Rodriguez missed the first 4 games with a suspension and has struggled to find running room behind the worst Kentucky offensive line since perhaps Stoops’ first Wildcats team in 2013.

Kentucky’s defense has made enough plays to keep the Wildcats in most games, sparking an upset victory at Florida and a fairly impressive win over Mississippi State.

But when the Wildcats were blasted into next week by No. 3 Tennessee, 44-6, on Saturday night at Neyland Stadium, falling to 5-3 on the year (and 2-3 in the SEC) and pretty much burying any hopes of another 10-win season … or for a bowl game above, say, the Music City Bowl-level, it’s fair to ask the following question:

Was 2021 the ceiling for Stoops and Kentucky football?

Looking ahead to 2023, it’s hard to feel quite as cheery about the Wildcats’ football future. Offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello has struggled as much as his offense. Of course, replacing him would entail calling on a 4th offensive coordinator in 4 seasons.

Regardless of who calls the plays, Levis will be gone, as will Rodriguez. Many of Kentucky’s top defenders won’t be around, either. Kentucky’s 2023 recruiting class is currently 43rd in the 247Sports.com rankings.

Meanwhile, if Tennessee isn’t the clear 2nd-best team in the SEC East, it’s because the Vols might be the best. Kentucky has done nothing to shave the distance between itself and Georgia, and Tennessee has pretty much, inarguably, bypassed the Wildcats up the SEC East ladder. Add in South Carolina, which defeated Kentucky at home. And Missouri coming up this Saturday on the road isn’t exactly looking incapable of giving the Wildcats some trouble.

Given all of these issues, with Stoops’ stock still remaining pretty high, it’s fair to wonder if a group of boosters from another desperate program looking for a defense-first coach who can get them competitive in a hurry might make the Kentucky boss an offer he can’t refuse.

Or if Stoops might be willing to listen.

The rap has always been that Kentucky is — say it with me, now — a basketball school. That’s a perception that will probably always exist. But given the support from athletics director Mitch Barnhart and a Kentucky fan base that had only distant memories of competitive football, it’s not necessarily fair.

Kentucky is a thin recruiting base for the Wildcats program, and its defense-and-staying-close means of being competitive worked wonders with Benny Snell and a series of run-happy quarterbacks. As much as anything, Kentucky football in 2022 is baffling because a coach who has proven himself adept at fashioning mid-level talent into very good results seems to have taken very good talent and shoehorned it into mid-level results.

Losing at Tennessee wasn’t shocking for Kentucky fans.

Losing in a way that seemed so tentative and uninspired was shocking.

And in the aftershock, more than a few will be wondering: About how much longer will Stoops want to be in Lexington, about how good of a team will Kentucky be able to assemble in 2023, and about whether 2021 is destined to be as good as it gets for Wildcats football.