It’s time to stop kidding ourselves. The Bush Hamdan experiment has failed.
For a few weeks in the middle of the season, we thought we saw a corner being turned for the Kentucky football offensive coordinator. The offense put up 38 points on Florida (though let’s be honest, Florida had no juice after a brutal loss to Georgia in what was effectively the Gators’ national championship). They managed 42 against Tennessee Tech. They even grinded out a win against Auburn on the road.
We called it progress.
In hindsight, it was fool’s gold.
Saturday’s performance against Vanderbilt was the icing on the cake. Forget the final score of 45-17; those two late touchdowns were garbage-time cosmetics that Hamdan shouldn’t get credit for.
The real game stats are shockingly bad…again
Here is the reality: With two minutes left in the third quarter, against a Vanderbilt team that Kentucky should be physically superior to, the Wildcats had 3 points and 91 total yards.
Ninety. One. Yards.
The offense looked completely lost. They couldn’t run the ball (1.6 yards per carry). They couldn’t protect the quarterback. They had no rhythm, no identity, and no fight. It was a regression to the brutal start of the season when this unit put up 13, 14, and 13 points in consecutive weeks.
The definition of insanity
Hamdan started the year on the hot seat. He bought himself some time with that mid-season “surge,” but the Vanderbilt game reminded us of his true baseline.
If Mark Stoops returns next year, and that is a massive “if” right now, he cannot bring Hamdan back with him. You cannot sell this fanbase on “continuity” when the product looks like that more often than not.
Hamdan has to go. The Vanderbilt game wasn’t just a loss. It was a fireable offense.
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
