Rapid Reaction: Georgia Tech's triple-option too much for Kentucky in bowl loss
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — After an 0-2 start, it had been a charmed season for the Kentucky Wildcats as the team fought back to a break-even SEC campaign, a seven-win season and a berth in the TaxSlayer Bowl. But it was a tough ending Saturday afternoon as Georgia Tech took advantage of a fast start to knock off Kentucky, 33-18.
What It Means: A win would have been a nice cap on the season and certainly wouldn’t have hurt Kentucky’s on-going recruiting efforts. But to some extent, having not reached a bowl since 2010 or won one since 2008, UK was playing with house money. While there is some loss of momentum with the dire performance in the TaxSlayer Bowl, Kentucky’s season is still widely viewed as a success, and as the team stands to graduate or lose virtually no contributors, the future remains bright for Mark Stoops’ Wildcats.
What I Liked: UK linebacker Jordan Jones had a typically solid game with 9 tackles, including 1.5 tackles for loss. Jones did a good job maintaining discipline against Tech’s exacting triple-option offense. Unfortunately, the Kentucky offense and special teams did little to help Jones and his defensive teammates.
What I Didn’t Like: Kentucky’s offense struggled in fine-tuning the little plays that make the difference between success and defeat. Too many times a pass was not quite accurate enough, a back came up a yard shy of a first down or the offense wasted a first down at the Tech 14-yard line as UK did in the middle of the second quarter. For a team that shaped up nicely behind the running of Boom Williams and Benny Snell, the Kentucky offense spent much of Saturday looking like a rudderless ship.
At halftime, UK had just two plays longer than 10 yards — and without those big plays, UK simply didn’t look like themselves.
Key Play: Kentucky had bounced back from a 10-0 deficit with a field goal and took a drive to the Tech 5-yard line with about 5:30 to go in the second quarter. On 4th-and-1, Kentucky elected to go for it, and ran a quick-hitter play to running back Jojo Kemp. Tech met him in the backfield and took him down well shy of the first-down marker.
Kentucky cut Georgia Tech’s lead to one possession, 26-18, with a little under four minutes left in the contest. Facing 3rd-and-4 with the possibility of giving the Wildcats the ball back, Yellow Jackets QB Justin Thomas found Ricky Jeune for a 42-yard gain to the UK 10-yard line that set up a game-sealing TD.
Who’s the Man: Probably Tech coach Paul Johnson, who persists in the face of up-tempo spread and passing game mania with his old-fashioned triple-option attack. It doesn’t always look like much, but Johnson keeps Tech relevant in the face of impressive odds. He certainly owned the TaxSlayer Bowl, as Tech rushed the ball for 266 yards.
What’s Next: Kentucky RB Boom Williams will have to decide whether to enter the NFL Draft or return for his senior season. Early speculation has been that Williams will leave, although that is far from certain. No other Wildcats are expected to leave school early. Otherwise, it’s back on the recruiting trail, where Stoops has filled in Kentucky’s class with impressive prospects over the last few weeks.
Tough loss. I thought you were going to pull it out.
I didn’t watch this game but what got Stoops pi$$ed off so bad.
He was angry at the refs for not calling a chop block that hurt 2 of our players
SDS has a story detailing what happened.
The refs also gave 3 points to tech just before the half. Embarrassingly bad officiating on a few different plays throughout the game. Georgia tech got all the breaks and uk did not.
It was cumulative. A missed targeting on Garrett Johnson, several missed chopblocks, and then they called a GT player out of bounds when he clearly went down inbounds with :01 in the half. Then reset the clock to :03 and let GT kick. That was kind of the last straw.
In the second half there were some missed calls as well, including a should-have-been targeting against us, but Stoops had calmed down at that point.
Very proud of this team!!!!!!! We can only build on this and get better!!!! I have a good feeling about next year #BBN
Come on Kentucky your fans said you would contribute. But seriously though if I was a Kentucky fan I would be happy with your season. It’s really good for who you are.
Was very happy to see ya’ll shut down Louisville today
Will be interested to see how Orgeron does next season
What grade A douchebag you are. LSU hasn’t done a damn thing relevant recently for you to be talking the way you are.
I think most people are happy. The win would have been a great way to end it, but it just wasn’t our day. Seemed like we played a little tight and got distracted by the atmosphere while GT was a been there done that bowl team basically. The great part is everything’s lining up for next year to be even better – returning almost all the starters, easier schedule, good recruiting class. It’s pretty fun to be BBN right now, in my opinion.
Good season but a laid an egg today with turnovers and missed opportunities
Georgia Tech is a better football program
Finally someone who can accept the reality and stop blaming refs and illegal blocks and all of the other BS.
Fact: triple option is hard to defend against and when run correctly creates a mathematical advantage at the point of attack. That’s why tech uses it successfully. It was the primary offense used 20 years ago or so. Most teams don’t use it now because it is difficult to learn as you saw from tech’s poor season a year ago when freshman were screwing up all over the place. Also it requires RB’s willing to block and not always want to be running stars. Prima donna RB’s in the SEC don’t like to block.
GT is one of the dirtiest teams in CFB. They say they cut block when it’s easy to see they chop block every single play.
I found this to be a pretty poor effort on the part of Kentucky. They had plenty of time to get the option figured out, but didn’t. I expected more out of the KY backs also. They did a great job of making it to a bowl game, but I thought they would have come to play and been better prepared. The season was a step in the right direction though.