Within a month of seasons end we will learn that planting flags on the field will be illegal and offending teams will be fined. There’s been like 3 fights today.

Baker mayfield is the all time champion at it though.

…..Almanor’s agility.

That fast break long catch and lay in last night was really smooth.

Love his confidence from three, but his grace around the bucket has really surprised me.

Keep it up, big fella.

If Cal would have remained at UK this year and we also had this shit sandwich Stoops is feeding us. I think it would have been more than I could take. 😂

So what actually happened? Did he take the job and the fan base rioted or what happened behind the scenes?

When KY starts looking for a new Head Coach he should be high on the list. He is the HC at Marshall and came from Saban’s staff at Alabama. He can recruit and would have KY playing inspired Football.

With IU’s breakthrough season, only Vandy and Iowa State are traditional power conference teams without a ten win season in program history.

They lead Kansas State 24-14, late in the second Q, and it would be their tenth win on the season, if it holds.

How did things shake out as the season unfolded when compared to NIL funding levels?

Let's start it off with our Wildcats-

Kentucky is 36th in the nation in NIL funding. 2nd to last in the SEC is MSU, just behind UK at 39th in the country. For comparison- UL is 20th, 2 spots behind the South Carolina Gamecocks. TA&M is 2nd overall to Oregon, followed closely by Texas, Florida, and Georgia.

7 of the top 9 and 8 of the top 12 are SEC programs. The only real huge anomalies in spending vs victories are Vanderbilt and Oklahoma. Most of the teams are relatively where you would expect them to be based on their spending and schedule. Ole Miss has gotten a great ROI when compared to schools like Auburn, Texas A&M, and Florida.

#2 Texas has two QBs making at least 4.8M total per year in NIL. 2% of UK's entire NIL budget across all sports.

I have 3 coaches that have performed better than what was expected of them in the preseason.

Shane Beamer
9-3 record

To me he had the best results compared to preseason expectations. His team played well and fought in every game. Capped it off by defeating Clemson

Billy Napier
7-5 (up on Florida st in the 3rd)

Many said he would be lucky to win 4 games. He has done well starting a freshman QB and RB. Future is looking good in Gainesville


Clark Lea
6-6


We all know how hard it is to win at Vandy and he won some big games and should of won at Mizzou. Could of been an 8 win season.


Texas had a good season but it was what it was expected of the team coming into the season.

I saw the post-game video of him walking off the field in tears, stops to talk to a fan.

One of the few dudes that really gave a shit and tried his best always for his school and state. I feel terrible for him, a completely empty stadium in his last game.

F*** the rest of the team

KENTUCKY FOOTBALL POSTGAME NOTES

LOUISVILLE AT KENTUCKY

C. M. NEWTON GROUNDS AT KROGER FIELD

NOV. 30, 2024



FINAL SCORE: Louisville 41, Kentucky 14



Team Records and Series Information

• Kentucky ends the season 4-8 and Louisville is 8-4.
• Kentucky remains the leader in the series, 20-16, ending a five-game win streak vs. UofL.
  • Louisville remains the leader in the series, 16-14, in the Governor’s Cup era.
  • Louisville is the leader in games played in Lexington, 11-10.

Team Notes

• Gavin Wimsatt’s 83-yard touchdown pass to Ja’Mori Maclin in the third quarter broke the Governor’s Cup record for longest pass.
  • The previous record was set by Dave Ragone’s 82-yard touchdown pass to Zek Parker of Louisville in 2001.
  • It is tied for the seventh-longest pass play in UK history and longest since Patrick Towles threw an 83-yard TD to Javess Blue in 2014 vs. ULM.
• Kentucky got one turnover on defense, continuing its streak of earning at least one turnover in each game this season for 16 takeaways in 2024.
• Kentucky’s loss ended a streak of 19 straight regular-season non-conference wins. UK’s last regular-season non-conference loss was seven years ago, in 2017 vs. Louisville.
• UK allowed 128 passing yards today. For the season UK held all 12 opponents under 300 yards and nine under 200. UK did not allow a touchdown pass today, first time that has happened vs. Louisville in a game played in Lexington since 2005.

Player Notes

• Kentucky honored 17 seniors in pregame ceremonies, including Beau Allen, Wilson Berry, Zion Childress, Trey Dennis, Jordan Dingle, Jamon Dumas-Johnson, Maxwell Hairston, Josaih Hayes, Gerald Mincey, Octavious Oxendine, Lucas Padgett, Alex Raynor, Paul Rodriguez, Tre’vonn Rybka, Jackson Schulz, Kristian Story and Demie Sumo-Karngbaye.
• Making his first collegiate start, QB Cutter Boley completed six of his 15 passing attempts for 48 yards.
  • Boley was the first true freshman quarterback to start a game for UK since Destin Wade in the 2022 Music City Bowl.
  • Boley was the first true freshman quarterback to start against Louisville in the Governor’s Cup era.
• QB Gavin Wimsatt connected on four of his nine passing attempts for 125 yards and two touchdowns.
  • His two touchdowns passing marked the second time in his 33 career games that he has thrown at least two touchdowns passing in a game, and his first time since 2021. It is also the first time a UK reserve QB has thrown two TDs vs. Louisville.
  • His 83-yard touchdown pass to Ja’Mori Maclin in the fourth quarter was a career long.
  • All four of his scores passing this season, including two at Tennessee – one was a two-point conversion – and two today, were to Ja’Mori Maclin.
• RB Jamarion Wilcox rushed a team-high 12 times for a team-high 66 yards, the fourth consecutive game he has led the Wildcats in rushing.
• RB Demie Sumo-Kangbaye carried 11 times for 51 yards.
  • He eclipsed 1,000 career yards rushing today, with 1,030 career yards to conclude the season.
• WR Ja’Mori Maclin caught a team-high-tying three passes for a team-high 121 yards and a team-high two touchdowns.
  • His two touchdown catches marked the fourth time in his 43 career games that he caught at least two touchdown passes in a game, and his first time at UK.
  • He had a four-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter and a career-best, 83-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter.
  • It is his third straight game with a TD reception.
  • His 121 receiving yards are the most for a UK receiver vs. Louisville since Garrett Johnson had 164 yards in 2016 at Louisville.
  • His 121 receiving yards are the most for a UK player vs. Louisville in a game played in Lexington.
  • Maclin is the third UK player with at least 120 receiving yards and two touchdowns vs. Louisville, also Craig Yeast in 1998 and Garrett Johnson in 2016.
• LB Alex Afari Jr. had a career-high-tying 10 tackles, including one tackle for loss (-1 yards).
• LB J.J. Weaver had six tackles, including a tackle for loss (-4 yards).
  • He has 39.5 tackles for loss, which is third all-time at UK.
• LB Jamon Dumas-Johnson had his third fumble recovery of the season.
• DB Maxwell Hairston made four tackles and a team-high three pass breakups. The three PBU tied his career high.
• K Alex Raynor did not attempt a field goal today and made both extra point attempts.
  • He finished the season making 15 of 16 field goals, and at 93.8 percent, broke his own school record for best field goal percentage in a season. He made 10 of 11, 90.9 percent, last year.
  • He concluded his UK career making 25 of 27 field goals, 92.6 percent, breaking the UK and SEC career records for percentage.
    • The previous UK record was 85.7 percent by Joe Mansour from 2010-13.
    • The previous SEC record (min. 25 attempts) was 89.5 percent, 34 of 38, by Evan McPherson of Florida.
  • He concluded his UK career 74 of 76 on extra points, totaling 149 points in his two seasons as a Wildcat.
  • He concluded his overall career, including three seasons at Georgia Southern:
    • Ranked second on the NCAA’s active career scoring list with 393 points
    • Ranked second on the NCAA’s active career PATs list with 183
    • Ranked third on the NCAA’s active career field goals list with 70

First Time Starters

QB Cutter Boley



Game Captains

DB Zion Childress, C Eli Cox, DB Maxwell Hairston, DL Deone Walker

QB and offensive line are 1 and 2. Many threads about this already, so won't belabor the point, but will observe that although Boley seems to have some potential, in the last 4+ quarters [NOTE EDITED] he played, we did not score a single point. Texas is possibly the NC, so understandable in that game, but today was not good in the least. Wimsatt, who is no one's idea of a polished passer, threw two TD passes in less than a half. Anyway, QB is an annual question mark and will be again in 2025 unless and until the QB situation gets fixed.

No. 3 is that I have felt for several years that Kentucky has to get some smaller, more agile defensive linemen. We have way too many guys that weigh 300+ with no lateral speed, and next to no ability to pressure the QB. Thus, we give up a surprising amount of yards, considering the recruiting hype around some of our players. Look at Gillotte at UL (270); the two DEs at South Carolina (250 or so) - that is what I am talking about. Sure it is great if you have the two DTs like Michigan has (Graham and Grant) who are 300+ but can really move, but we don't recruit at that level, so we need to get some much needed quickness and lateral movement up front on defense to turn this back around. If we had that, all of a sudden, our LBs and secondary would look better vs. the run and the pass.

A hand picked 5 star transfer quarterback benched and likely gone.
A coveted and NIL promised lineman walking in uniform to the concession stand during the game.
1q years in an a team more undisciplined than when it began.

Can't get no better than this boys.

Oregon looks virtually unstoppable. Underrated defense because the O is so spectacular nobody notices.

Maybe Texas could take them.

12 teams should make for some very interesting matchups.

Anywhere to watch the game from yesterday? Thought would have been able to on espn plus but can’t.

Just an all-around embarrassing day for the Kentucky football program. I thought there was a chance they could rally the troops and play for something to salvage the year, but this team was totally checked out. We could go back and say, "Well, they nearly beat Georgia, they won at Ole Miss," but those games were a lifetime ago. When this team hit adversity, they checked out, didn't respond, the lack of leadership showed.

Worst of all, they were dominated in the trenches. Winning at the line of scrimmage was what reversed this series in Kentucky's favor and today was bleak in that regard. They have a lot of work to do on both sides of the ball in the offseason, the OL because it's been a struggle all year but the defensive line because of looming losses.

Jamarion Wilcox had major ball security issues today, as did Kentucky in general. Tough situation with the conditions and state of the team for Cutter Boley, but very few players had a good day.

4-8 and we're heading into an offseason with more uncertainty at Kentucky than we have seen in quite some time. I'm eager to see what happens because Stoops is simply not going to win the press conference at this point. Whatever positive might happen for him at UK in the future will be against the tide when it comes to the fan base. That was before today, but the memory of today will not soon fade.

Kentucky came into this season with no good plan on offense, and the defense cratered as time went on. No team should ever lay down like this in a rivalry game.

So Mark Stoops is trying to sell the fanbase on Cutter Boley being the future of the program. We saw today how much work is in store for Boley and his development when playing against a HORRIBLE P4 defense at home.

So this begs the question, do you trust that Bush Hamdan is the man that can develop Cutter Boley into a winning SEC QB? If so, why? Looking at his body of work, who do you point to as evidence that Hamdan is capable of developing a top notch QB? This guy has been around for a while now and I just don’t see it. Any team that he’s been a part of that has had good QB play was due to the head coach being a former OC/QB coach.

Sell me on Hamdan being a QB whisper. If he isn’t, next year will be one of UK’s worst in the last 12+ years.

We all want it to happen. But you can’t pull 40 million or whatever it is out of your butt. Let’s hear some concrete ideas on how it can happen. He has a contract, and there’s no need in discussing whether it’s a good contract or not (it isn’t). But stoops is owed the money if we want him gone. So how does Kentucky force his hand or come up with the money to buy him out?

Frankly, this debacle might get a few of the big money people to find a way and cause it to happen. We can’t continue like this. Commonwealth will be a ghost town next year of he’s still here.

After 5 weeks, Tulane is 3-2, their only losses being to two top 20 teams, Oklahoma and K-State.

Go get them

Can my fine friends from rafters help me? Having a family conversation about Otega‘s eligibility. He is a junior and has one year remaining of eligibility, correct?

Thumped #19 Illinois tonight, 76-53. Clara Strack had 25 and 15. Illinois did not hit a 3 pointer until there were 3 minutes left in the game, and they were outscored 26-9 in the 4th quarter. Impressive win for Coach Brooks’ squad!

Being the winningest coach in program history does have some weight. This is not a feeling post this is an actual honest post about does he get at least a chance to fix things.

Every coach goes through these kinds of seasons and we at UK are not immune to them. I mean it’s not like we have a great football tradition of excellence. Stoops came in and changed things, but the last 3 yrs has been awful to say the least. We have had some things that didn’t go as we planned and some recruits that just didn’t pan out at all. It happens guys just get dubbed one way and it never translates. I get that Hamden and the offense….well sucked but also not the right QB and the Oline was god awful to help anyone out. I mean we all saw it can’t run routes when QB is having to scramble at the snap. That’s not offensive football nor at times coaching when guys just aren’t good but you have to play the games anyway.
We aren’t the only ones to have a horrible season look at Okla St those dudes were like 14th to start win 3 games. I hate that we looked as bad as we did all year, but wouldn’t you want a chance to fix things.

No feelings in this just honest talk about giving a chance to turn things around.

Watching the incredible start of the game and AM fans. It’s crazy and you can see why Stoops wanted a shot at this level of football.