The 2015 University of Kentucky football season ended on Saturday afternoon with a 38-24 defeat at the hands of the rival University of Louisville Cardinals. The loss was the fifth in the Governor’s Cup series for the Wildcats and prevented them from ending the season with an elusive bowl game. For the second year in a row, Kentucky started off hot and then dramatically cooled off in the second half of the season. Back to back 5 win seasons have the program stalled, unable to move forward and gain ground in the competitive SEC.
The season began with renewed optimism. Commonwealth Stadium had undergone extensive renovations. The recruiting has been better under head coach Mark Stoops and his staff. Everything was set up for a successful 2015 campaign, especially with a home heavy schedule. As they’ve done for many, many years in a row, the Big Blue Nation bought into the hype and were “All In” as the Cats jumped out to a 4-1 season record. And then, the wheels fell off.
I’m not a football expert when it comes to Xs and Os, but there were so many errors during the Vanderbilt and Louisville games that would leave even the most novice football fan, scratching their head. The offensive playcalling against the Commodores and Louisville was bland, unimaginative and confusing. Inside the redzone, the Cats simply had too many empty trips which ended up putting the defense is a difficult situation. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. It was a similar situation that we saw throughout the entire season.
Clearly, Patrick Towles was not the answer at quarterback. But it’s clear that there are more issues facing the program than the man taking snaps. Receivers dropped passes. The offensive line was wildly inconsistent, whether it was blocking or with ongoing penalty issues, the O-Line simply didn’t get the job done. The defense struggled mightily through most of the year, but still gave the Wildcats opportunities to win multiple games (Florida, Auburn, Vandy and Louisville). For whatever reason, Kentucky couldn’t make simple plays to either sustain offensive drives or get the defense off the field. That’s not a recipe for success.
Mark Stoops doesn’t need to go anywhere. Even if you’re not all in on his vision, changing the head coach after three years will put the Wildcats back at square one. This offseason, however, there needs to be a lot of changes. The Kentucky Wildcat football program doesn’t have much of a margin for error. To be successful, the Cats can’t miss on recruits and once the kids get on campus, they have to be coached up. The coaches can’t be as exotic as they might be in other situations. The Cats need to find an identity. Will they air it out on offense or ground it out with the running game? The time for these touch decisions to be made is now.
I still believe in Coach Stoops. I believe in what this program can and should be. We are, as the Big Blue Nation, past the point of promises and dreams and “wait until next year.” If the program can’t take a step forward next year, they might never do it. South Carolina, Missouri and Georgia are in rebuild mode in the SEC East and I still like to believe that Kentucky is ahead of Vanderbilt (on field success notwithstanding). The Cats will once again have a down year in the SEC East to step up and move out of the basement. The time is now.