Head Coach Mark Stoops was very frank about his team's performance in today's loss to Vanderbilt. He called it "A very disappointing loss" and even went so far as to say that he was "Very disappointed with myself and my staff for not getting this team ready. I have to do a better job."
He said that there were too many penalties, turnovers, misassignments, and not making plays. Those three are not going to lead to winning football, Stoops says. "I tried like hell to beat that into our heads this week and to play winning football in all areas...I'm obviously not getting through to them."
The Wildcats had 12 penalties, totaling 105 yards. That's a hard deficit to overcome and add in two turnovers, one interception and one fumble lost, and it's even harder. Kentucky continued to put themselves into situations that made it hard to sustain drives and convert points. They even botched a field goal attempt with a bad hold and an extra point attempt with a bad snap. It was a very undisciplined team that took the field tonight.
The frustrating part for Stoops is that he constantly has these issues out of bye weeks. He has lost 8 of 13 attempts after a bye week. "It's very frustrating. I obviously got to do a lot better job." His post-game press conference was full of frustration, and he continued to quote a lack of discipline in his players and how he needs to be the one who gets them better prepared.
Even with all the miscues, it still came down to an opportunity on a final drive for Kentucky, where they could tie the game with a touchdown and a two-point conversion. "As bad as we played, we still had opportunities." And at the end of the day, he said, "We didn't play winning football."
Stoops knows he missed a major opportunity with the SEC looking more wide open than ever and being able to add a quality win in Vanderbilt (who just knocked off Alabama last week). If they found a way to win most of their games with maybe a loss to Texas or another top team, they could even create opportunities to get into the College Football Playoff. That chance is gone now, with two losses to unranked teams and another loss to Georgia.