Another year is in the books. You might call it a disappointing year, but I think that would be a massive understatement. At any rate, here's a look back at how we got to where we are now.
1. vs Louisiana Lafayette. WIN 40-33. We opened the season against Mark Hudspeth's Ragin Cajuns. We took a 33-10 lead late in the 3rd quarter over a mid-major who'd been to 5 straight bowls. Roughly 5 minutes later, the game was tied before UK managed a late go-ahead TD. As it turns out, ULL was just a bad football team, and the UK collapse would be a case of foreshadowing for how the rest of our season would play out.
2. @ South Carolina. WIN 26-22. Here was our chance to prove we were for real, at least so we thought. Win a conference game on the road. We did win the game, but for the second straight week, we collapsed in the second half. A Gamecock failed 2 point conversion, which would have tied the game late, that we returned for 2 points ourselves was the difference in this game. As it turns out, SC was a 3-9 football team that we almost turned into a 4-8 team.
3. Florida. LOSS 14-9. Our chance to avenge last year's heartbreaker in Gainesville. Our chance to end "the streak". Our chance- that we just couldn't take. Despite the final score, we were bad in this game, and were never really even close to being in position to win. It was at this point that many began to realize we weren't any better than last year.
4. Missouri. WIN 21-13. If we couldn't get the Florida monkey off our backs, at least we did get the Missouri one. It was a bit of fool's gold for many UK fans who thought that the ranked and previously undefeated Tigers were a good team. As it turned out, Mizzou and SC, UK's only 2 conference wins, were also the only conference teams worse than us.
5. Eastern Kentucky. WIN 34-27. What should have been a confidence-building tune-up game turned into a near disaster as UK needed overtime to get by the Colonels. We were whipped up front all game long by a middle-of-the-road FCS team. By this point it was undeniable, our Cats, despite their 4-1 record, were in trouble moving forward.
6. Auburn. LOSS 30-27. In a winnable home game, with some very questionable decisions- particularly on the final drive, this game represented more than a tough loss. This game made it clear to even the bluest of the blue that our coaches were in over their heads. It's my personal opinion that this game is when the coaches lost the locker room, and the Cats' performances over the next 3 weeks seem to agree.
7. @Mississippi State. LOSS 42-16. In our first road game in 6 weeks, we were abysmal. We played the Bulldogs close for most of the first half before a meltdown of epic proportions at the end of the half. Our guys simply quit on this game. They quit on their coaches and they quit on each other. From the time Stoops iced our kicker, the guys threw in the towel. This game went from what was going to be 14-13 late in the second quarter to out of hand by halftime.
8. Tennessee. LOSS 52-21. Going into this game, many of us were hoping that we could just stop the bleeding. Our attempts at doing that were akin to putting a bandaid on a severed limb. This was the game in which we seemed to create new ways for our opponent to embarrass us, and the Vols were happy to oblige.
9. Georgia. LOSS 27-3. If UK can get credit for anything this year, it's that this game was the one that turned Georgia's season back in the right direction. Going into this game, Georgia hadn't scored a TD in the previous 10 quarters. They were 1-3 in their last 4 games, with their lone win being a 9-6 clunker over a terrible Missouri team. Mark Richt said his team didn't believe they could win this game, but they were clearly overestimating good old Kentucky. This game put UGA back on a winning path and they haven't lost since.
10. @ Vanderbilt. LOSS 21-17. In what was clearly a battle for 12th place in the conference, as Missouri and SC had locked up 13th and 14th, UK went to Nashville with questions looming over who would start at quarterback. Coach showed his resolve was strong as he went the guy who'd been continually atrocious over the course of the season. In what was possibly the worst handling of a quarterback situation ever, the coach then pulled the guy he said gave us the best chance to win after it was clear he gave us no chance, then pulled the other guy and put the starter back in. The entire sports world was shocked that this seemingly clueless strategy didn't result in a UK win.
11. Charlotte. WIN 58-10. A home game in inclement weather against one of the worst teams in the FBS resulted in UK's lone dominant performance of the season. Kentucky was far from flawless even in this one, but the 49ers never had a chance.
12. Louisville. LOSS 38-24. Perhaps the worst UK meltdown in thirty years of bad football. With a 24-7 halftime lead, the Cats managed about 15 yards of offense in the second half, while giving up 31 unanswered points to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory against a very mediocre opponent with a post-season appearance on the line.
There's the summary of our 2015 season. We have a coach who, week after week, states that the team has to get better and that he has to get better; yet neither have gotten any better. For two consecutive years now, we've had a decent start to the season before finishing terribly. We're 5-13 in our past 18 games. The only thing worse than our awful defense is our putrid offense and our special teams, which may have set records for how terrible they were.
I don't know where Stoops can go from here. The players aren't eating what he's cooking anymore, and the recruiting pipeline has undoubtedly sprung some severe leaks. He obviously has no answers for how we get better. He spoke today about a "grueling offseason", which is worrisome itself. If his answer is, essentially, 'we're going to try harder', that's the same as admitting he doesn't even know what the problem is.
I was onboard the Stoops train. He got some recruits to come here of a level I thought we'd never see so soon at UK; but he and this staff have been totally unable to develop any of them. Our team is consistently unprepared, fundamentally flawed and extremely undisciplined. Those are coaching failures, and you can't fix them by just trying harder. I fear we have a coordinator parading as a head coach, a position coach parading as a defensive coordinator, and a quality control coach parading as an offensive coordinator. What's worse is none of them are going anywhere anytime soon.
1. vs Louisiana Lafayette. WIN 40-33. We opened the season against Mark Hudspeth's Ragin Cajuns. We took a 33-10 lead late in the 3rd quarter over a mid-major who'd been to 5 straight bowls. Roughly 5 minutes later, the game was tied before UK managed a late go-ahead TD. As it turns out, ULL was just a bad football team, and the UK collapse would be a case of foreshadowing for how the rest of our season would play out.
2. @ South Carolina. WIN 26-22. Here was our chance to prove we were for real, at least so we thought. Win a conference game on the road. We did win the game, but for the second straight week, we collapsed in the second half. A Gamecock failed 2 point conversion, which would have tied the game late, that we returned for 2 points ourselves was the difference in this game. As it turns out, SC was a 3-9 football team that we almost turned into a 4-8 team.
3. Florida. LOSS 14-9. Our chance to avenge last year's heartbreaker in Gainesville. Our chance to end "the streak". Our chance- that we just couldn't take. Despite the final score, we were bad in this game, and were never really even close to being in position to win. It was at this point that many began to realize we weren't any better than last year.
4. Missouri. WIN 21-13. If we couldn't get the Florida monkey off our backs, at least we did get the Missouri one. It was a bit of fool's gold for many UK fans who thought that the ranked and previously undefeated Tigers were a good team. As it turned out, Mizzou and SC, UK's only 2 conference wins, were also the only conference teams worse than us.
5. Eastern Kentucky. WIN 34-27. What should have been a confidence-building tune-up game turned into a near disaster as UK needed overtime to get by the Colonels. We were whipped up front all game long by a middle-of-the-road FCS team. By this point it was undeniable, our Cats, despite their 4-1 record, were in trouble moving forward.
6. Auburn. LOSS 30-27. In a winnable home game, with some very questionable decisions- particularly on the final drive, this game represented more than a tough loss. This game made it clear to even the bluest of the blue that our coaches were in over their heads. It's my personal opinion that this game is when the coaches lost the locker room, and the Cats' performances over the next 3 weeks seem to agree.
7. @Mississippi State. LOSS 42-16. In our first road game in 6 weeks, we were abysmal. We played the Bulldogs close for most of the first half before a meltdown of epic proportions at the end of the half. Our guys simply quit on this game. They quit on their coaches and they quit on each other. From the time Stoops iced our kicker, the guys threw in the towel. This game went from what was going to be 14-13 late in the second quarter to out of hand by halftime.
8. Tennessee. LOSS 52-21. Going into this game, many of us were hoping that we could just stop the bleeding. Our attempts at doing that were akin to putting a bandaid on a severed limb. This was the game in which we seemed to create new ways for our opponent to embarrass us, and the Vols were happy to oblige.
9. Georgia. LOSS 27-3. If UK can get credit for anything this year, it's that this game was the one that turned Georgia's season back in the right direction. Going into this game, Georgia hadn't scored a TD in the previous 10 quarters. They were 1-3 in their last 4 games, with their lone win being a 9-6 clunker over a terrible Missouri team. Mark Richt said his team didn't believe they could win this game, but they were clearly overestimating good old Kentucky. This game put UGA back on a winning path and they haven't lost since.
10. @ Vanderbilt. LOSS 21-17. In what was clearly a battle for 12th place in the conference, as Missouri and SC had locked up 13th and 14th, UK went to Nashville with questions looming over who would start at quarterback. Coach showed his resolve was strong as he went the guy who'd been continually atrocious over the course of the season. In what was possibly the worst handling of a quarterback situation ever, the coach then pulled the guy he said gave us the best chance to win after it was clear he gave us no chance, then pulled the other guy and put the starter back in. The entire sports world was shocked that this seemingly clueless strategy didn't result in a UK win.
11. Charlotte. WIN 58-10. A home game in inclement weather against one of the worst teams in the FBS resulted in UK's lone dominant performance of the season. Kentucky was far from flawless even in this one, but the 49ers never had a chance.
12. Louisville. LOSS 38-24. Perhaps the worst UK meltdown in thirty years of bad football. With a 24-7 halftime lead, the Cats managed about 15 yards of offense in the second half, while giving up 31 unanswered points to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory against a very mediocre opponent with a post-season appearance on the line.
There's the summary of our 2015 season. We have a coach who, week after week, states that the team has to get better and that he has to get better; yet neither have gotten any better. For two consecutive years now, we've had a decent start to the season before finishing terribly. We're 5-13 in our past 18 games. The only thing worse than our awful defense is our putrid offense and our special teams, which may have set records for how terrible they were.
I don't know where Stoops can go from here. The players aren't eating what he's cooking anymore, and the recruiting pipeline has undoubtedly sprung some severe leaks. He obviously has no answers for how we get better. He spoke today about a "grueling offseason", which is worrisome itself. If his answer is, essentially, 'we're going to try harder', that's the same as admitting he doesn't even know what the problem is.
I was onboard the Stoops train. He got some recruits to come here of a level I thought we'd never see so soon at UK; but he and this staff have been totally unable to develop any of them. Our team is consistently unprepared, fundamentally flawed and extremely undisciplined. Those are coaching failures, and you can't fix them by just trying harder. I fear we have a coordinator parading as a head coach, a position coach parading as a defensive coordinator, and a quality control coach parading as an offensive coordinator. What's worse is none of them are going anywhere anytime soon.
