Kentucky Wildcats Football: SAQB – Recapping the Florida Loss

Yesterday Kentucky fell to Florida 24-7 in a game that felt much closer at times, but also seemed unreachable at others. The Wildcats had everything set up in their favor to pull an upset but couldn’t execute and break a streak that now stands at 27 consecutive losses.

Room for improvement:
1. The Offensive Line
The ground game never got going and the Kentucky rushing attack was held to 2.3 yards per carry AND the quarterbacks were sacked 5 times and pressured heavily on almost every single down. Add in the penalties and blown protections and this group was a total mess for much of the night. They will have to play better for Kentucky to have a chance.
2. The Quarterback Substitutions
The offense started strong with Whitlow at the helm but began to sputter when Smith was inserted. Conversely, it seemed like Whitlow was sent in just as soon as Smith got into a rhythm. If the staff is going to insist on using a two quarterback system, it needs to work better than it did against Florida.
3. The Quarterback Play
The story is the same each week and this one is no different. Maxwell Smith hurts the defense downfield and accounts for most of the teams yardage, but takes sacks and hits. Whitlow throws at a high completion rate but for minimal yards and is unable to threaten in the mid-range or deep passes. Neither of these two has separated themselves as the starter at this point because they both have massive holes in their games.
4. Offensive Play Calling
I fully understand that this roster is not even close to ideal to run the air raid offense. I get that Joker left the offensive cabinet as bare as humanly possible and that our top five playmakers were not on the roster last season. That’s all fine, but the offensive play calling has not been impressive and was particularly lacking against Florida.
5. The Offensive Offense
Kentucky was out gained 402 – 173 in total offense. The team mustered only one single third down conversion on the night and could only hold onto the ball for 21:51 total time of possession. Bad play calling and bad play execution lead to too many third and long scenarios that left this young and inexperienced offense behind the down as distance too often. The team’s leading rusher and only scoring player was Kicker Joe Mansour on a trick play. This team will have to find an offense because the defense and special teams are simply just not talented enough to win SEC games on their own.

Bright Spots:
1. Defensive Effort
The defense played surprisingly well. It might seem odd that I would praise a unit that gave up 400+ yards of total offense and 24 points, especially when you consider Florida’s injuries, new starting quarterback, and that the game was in Lexington. Ultimately though, Kentucky’s offense was unable to hold up their end if the bargain and left the defensive unit on the field too long and too often and often in bad field position. These guys did well considering the circumstances.
2. Trick Play
I love that Stoops rolled the dice with the trick play, even if it hadn’t worked. Now if the offense could outrush the kicker, we’d really be talking.
3. Alexander Montgomery
So I know that, statistically speaking, Timmons, Badet, and Blue have been more productive this season, but I like Montgomery better. He doesn’t have the wheels the other three have, but he made some tough grabs against a good defense and even managed to make a catch on what should have been a targeting penalty. Montgomery looks like he will be the next great possession receiver at UK.

That’s about it. I wish I had more positive things to say, but this was a rough game. Lets hope that the defense can continue to make big plays and that the offense can figure something (anything) out in the coming weeks.