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Conventional wisdom suggested that Kentucky had a shot at a competitive matchup with Alabama. After all, the Wildcats entered at the game as an 11-point underdog, probably the closest odds UK has had against the Tide since the Mike Shula era in Tuscaloosa. But on Saturday, Alabama looked like Alabama. And Kentucky looked like Kentucky.
The Wildcats were down 21-0 by the time some were settling into their seats from the early kickoff. Kentucky’s defense, a week after dominating Mississippi State, looked completely toothless, giving up 3rd and short and 3rd and long alike with dizzying frequency. The Wildcats’ offense looked like somebody had a hefty life insurance policy on QB Devin Leary and might be looking to collect.
Admittedly, Kentucky had some significant injuries in the secondary. And falling down by 3 scores early left the Wildcats unable to run their normal offense (RB Ray Davis seemed to barely play). But the bottom line is this — the Tide rolled, 49-21, moving their series edge over UK to 39-2-1.
And as much as Kentucky backers like to credit Mark Stoops with breathing life into the morbid program, exactly how much life has it been? Kentucky has feasted on the Vandy/Carolina/Mizzou trio and added in another victory over a mediocre SEC squad to reach 7-8 wins per season. UK is still sitting on 1 top-10 win in Stoops’ tenure (over a vastly overrated Florida team in 2021). And the gap between the ‘Cats and Alabama looked like about as yawning of a chasm as ever.
Player of the Week: Ray Davis, running back
It wasn’t a banner game for Davis (12 rushes for 26 yards), but he did score 2 of Kentucky’s 3 touchdowns on the ground and led the team in receptions with 5 for 32 yards. As much as anything, this game was a reminder that when circumstances take Davis out of play, the Wildcats are completely lost. Davis should reach 1,000 rushing yards for the year against South Carolina, which would be — yes, you’re reading this right — his 3rd school at which he’s rushed for 1,000 yards. Looking ahead, Kentucky’s best hope for 2024 might be to convince Davis to come back for another year in Lexington.
Freshman of the Week: Nasir Addison, defensive back
The freshman provided a rare highlight for the Wildcats when he recovered a fumbled punt in the 1st quarter, setting up a short field for UK’s 1st score of the game. Given the wealth of injuries ahead of Addison on the depth chart, he might figure into the secondary for UK in the remaining 3 games. Addison added a tackle as well.
Biggest concern: Defense — just, defense
Brad White’s bend-but-don’t-break system is never glamorous. Kentucky’s edge pass rush, rarely strong outside of the Josh Allen era, is basically nonexistent. But with a wealth of secondary injuries, UK’s defensive backs left Alabama’s receivers running wide open in space far too frequently.
Kentucky has been bad defensively this season. Too many bends have resulted in breaking. Alabama converted 3rd-and-12 twice and 3rd-and-17 once. Even when White’s front delivered a play or 2, the secondary couldn’t get the Wildcats off the field.
Whether the ultimate issue is inadequate recruiting, poor personnel choices or poor player development, the blame comes back to a Kentucky staff that has been given plenty of slack for a conservative brand of football. When conservative play starts yielding 49-point games, it’s fair to wonder how much slack is still going to be given for an underperforming defense.
Developing trend: 1-18
That’s Stoops’ Kentucky record against top-10 teams. Are the standards at Kentucky lower than about 10/14ths or 11/14ths of the SEC? Sure. But even for a beloved coach who had given a shine of respectability to the UK program, at some point, if upward aspirations are there, the Wildcats need to shoot for a top-10 win more than once a decade.
Frankly, unless Kentucky finishes the year by taking care of South Carolina on the road and upsetting Louisville (which might be a 2nd top-10 win), it’s fair to say that the 2020, 2022 and 2023 seasons have come in under expectations. The 2020 season — bizarre as it was — was a losing year, with Kentucky looking completely unfocused, particularly on defense. The 2022 season included a home loss to Vandy. And 2023 appears to mark the point where Mizzou has taken the upper hand in its matchup with UK.
Kentucky football fans are easily satisfied. But even they have to start wondering if there’s something more.
Key stat: 6
That’s how many touchdowns Alabama QB Jalen Milroe managed — 3 through the air, 3 more on the ground. While Milroe has come on to play better and better throughout the season, he was looking positively Tebowish on Saturday, becoming just the 2nd Alabama player to post consecutive 3-TD rushing games (Derrick Henry is the other!?!).
Kentucky couldn’t contain him on the ground and left his receivers wide open in the air. It wasn’t whether Milroe and Alabama would control the game, it was just a question of how bad the ultimate damage was.
First impression about South Carolina: Pass defense ASAP
Spencer Rattler had to be licking his chops if he watched the Tide offense throttle Kentucky. Carolina isn’t particularly balanced and isn’t particularly good. But the Gamecocks can throw, and Kentucky figures to give them plenty of opportunities next week.
Rattler has completed right at 70 percent of his passes for the year, and he’s approaching 3,000 passing yards. Given the Gamecocks’ still-existing hopes for a bowl, it’s fair to expect that Shame Beamer’s team will throw everything but the kitchen sink at the ‘Cats. And most of it, judging by UK’s secondary play, will be complete.
Kentucky badly needs a 7th win and a 4th league win to have a chance to wrap up the season on any type of positive level the following week at Louisville. But it won’t be easy.
Joe Cox is a columnist for Saturday Down South. He has also written or assisted in writing five books, and his most recent, Almost Perfect (a study of baseball pitchers’ near-miss attempts at perfect games), is available on Amazon or at many local bookstores.
