The most damning stat of Mark Stoops’ Kentucky football season

The Kentucky Wildcats lost another SEC game to the Texas Longhorns 31-14 this week. They fall to 1-7 in the conference, and this season may rank among the most disappointing seasons in recent memory. This season has been full of many frustrating moments and games, as well as puzzling decisions and mismanaged opportunities by head coach Mark Stoops and his coaching staff.

The season stats are hard to read because of how bad they are; in this article, which we posted before the Texas game, things were already bleak. There's one that stands out more than any other stat that wasn't even mentioned in that article. It's the most damning stat of the season by far, and it's this:

There have been five times this season that Kentucky has had only five yards to score, and they failed. That's absolutely embarrassing on so many levels. Every team may have one or two of those on the season, especially when they are trying to convert 4th and goal punch-ins. However, for Kentucky, it's a recurring theme.

Before this game, Kentucky ranked 109th out of 133 in scoring offense and 79th in red-zone offense. Their success in getting into even that mediocre tier has been mostly due to Alex Raynor converting all but one of his field goal tries. It's also larger due to their non-SEC games. In the SEC, they have been awful at scoring and in the red zone.

This is a frustrating season of SEC play, and that stat by Corey Price shows how frustrating it has been. He also shared, "Kentucky scored a total of 10 offensive touchdowns in their 8 SEC games this season." The SEC is a good conference full of good defenses, but this is bad. This isn't even competitive.

Kentucky gets to end the season with a rivalry game against Louisville, and while it won't be an SEC win and they have not shot to make a bowl game, there has to be some forward momentum to get things on the right track for next season.