We have heard Mark Stoops use a lot of words to describe losses over his 13 years in Lexington. "Frustrating." "Sloppy." "Unacceptable."
But on Saturday night in Nashville, after watching his team get dismantled 45-17 by Vanderbilt, Stoops used a word that should send a chill down the spine of every Kentucky fan: "Discouraging."
"Discouraging performance by us and, uh, you know, not very good," Stoops said bluntly to open his press conference. "We weren't very good."
They were terrible, there is no way to sugarcoat just how embarrising this was. It wasn't just a loss; it was a total capitulation against a program Kentucky used to dominate.
Kentucky football "Couldn't get moving"
The most alarming part of Stoops' presser was his admission about the offense's lack of fight. Despite scoring 90 points over the previous three games, the Wildcats looked like they were running in quicksand against the Commodores.
"It was aggravating because, yeah, not getting first downs... it was like we couldn't get moving," Stoops admitted. "I wouldn't say [they] took us out of our game, but just got after us right from the start."
The stats back up the "aggravation." Kentucky managed just 1.6 yards per rush on 19 attempts. The offense held the ball for only 23 minutes compared to Vanderbilt’s 36.
The only offense they really managed was in the 4th quarter when Vandy had put in the backups. The last touchdown came with 2 seconds left to make their 2nd TD in the 4th.
If you can't get up for a sold out road enviornment with bowl eligibility on the line, that signals a massive issue in your program.
No answers for the pass defense
When asked about the secondary, which gave up a staggering 539 passing yards (484 to Diego Pavia alone), Stoops didn't even try to spin it.
"Not very good. Really... Just not very good," Stoops said, sounding almost defeated. "We tried different things. We tried different coverages... He ran right by us a couple times... Threw it over the top of us. So just across the board, not very good."
It was eeirly reminiscient of the Tennessee game when they just did what they wanted.
The 'fumes' comment
Perhaps the most concerning quote came when Stoops was asked about the team's resiliency heading into the Governor's Cup next week.
"You're kind of on fumes. There's some guys definitely hurting," Stoops said.
"On fumes" is not what you want to hear before a rivalry game that will decide bowl eligibility. If this team is already gassed, Louisville might just run them all the way back to Lexington.
Drew Holbrook is an avid Kentucky fan who has been covering the Cats for over 10 years. In his free time he enjoys downtime with his family and Premier League soccer. You can find him on X here. Micah 7:7. #UptheAlbion