The Kentucky Wildcats lost to the South Carolina Gamecocks in Columbia on Saturday night by a score of 35-13.
The Cats started out hot, scoring a touchdown on their first drive. South Carolina responded, but Kentucky drove the field on the next drive for a field goal to lead 10-7 at the end of the first quarter. Unfortunately, that was the last good thing that happened to Mark Stoops’ squad.
Kentucky got a stop on the next drive following the field goal, but Cutter Boley got sacked, and South Carolina
returned it for a touchdown to take the lead at 14-10. The very next drive, Boley threw a pick-six, and the game was all but over. The Gamecocks ended up taking a commanding 28-10 lead into halftime.
After the break, the game slowed down. Kentucky’s defense locked in, but the offense couldn’t get anything going. It’ll be discussed more below, but this is a completely different game without two terrible turnovers. The score was 7-3 in the second half and 21-13 with no defensive scores. Alas.
Next up, the Cats will travel to Athens next Saturday to take on the Georgia Bulldogs.
McGowan is a bright spot
Kentucky football isn’t fun to watch right now, but at least the staple of the Stoops era remains. That is a really strong run game led by an elite running back. Seth McGowan has hit a lot of bumps in the road during his college career, but he’s proving a lot of coaches around the country wrong for not giving him a chance.
McGowan is an absolutely elite running back. Through four games, he has seven rushing touchdowns to along with more than 90 rushing yards per game. He’s a big guy who doesn’t go down on first contact, but he’s also really good at hitting the hole hard and cutting his way around defenders.
These last few years have been rough as Kentucky fans, but McGowan has been really, really fun.
Turnovers
The name of the game was simple—turnovers. Kentucky looked dominant through the first four drives of the game, but turnovers unraveled everything they had built.
Boley is better than Zach Calzada, but unfortunately, that’s not a high bar. He doesn’t lack for confidence, which has turned out to be a bad thing. The redshirt has two really bad habits—he holds the ball too long with a bad offensive line, and he just throws the ball up for grabs.
If there are any Bengals fans reading this, Boley reminds me a lot of Jake Browning. He can make some plays because he’s confident in himself, but he makes a lot of really, really dumb decisions. His dumb decisions tonight included holding the ball too long leading to a sack fumble returned for a touchdown and a pick-six.
Kentucky looked like they belonged, and then turnovers took them out of the game. The Gamecock offense wasn’t goo,d and Kentucky’s defense was fine, but Boley took them out of the game.
Boley has potential, but as long as Bush Hamdan is his offensive coordinator and Mark Stoops is his head coach, he’ll never be anything more than another failure joining a long line before him.
The WR room is a problem
Kentucky’s tight ends look elite this year, and while I wish I could brag that that’s due to Vince Marrow’s departure, it’s because the wide receiver room is so bad. To start, Fred Farrier is WR3, and that, in and of itself, is an issue.
Ja’Mori Maclin had a lot of hype, but he’s been a boom-or-bust option to this point. He shows up every now and then, but more often than not, he’s just out there.
Kendrick Law has been a welcome addition, but he’s more of a Deebo Samuel-type gadget player than a WR1. Law is the type of guy you need in your WR room—he blocks, he makes plays all over the field, he returns kicks—but he isn’t a dominant guy.
JJ Hester is another boom-or-bust deep shot guy. Hardley Gilmore is an undersized, immature outside receiver with no discipline. Troy Stellato was worthless at Clemson, so naturally, he’s provided the same in Lexington. And then there are a lot of freshmen and other unproven guys.
The WR room is a problem, and it isn’t the position coach (the only guy not named Marrow that carries his weight in recruiting). Josh Kattus and Willie Rodriguez have carried the receiving corps, along with Law, this season, and that should say enough. Those guys have talent, but they aren’t meant to be your leading receivers.
Once again, a Stoops-led team has an Achilles heel in half the football game—offense. The passing attack, and the blocking to go with it, are abysmal. Maybe, this is Boley’s issue? Couple this WR corps with the offensive line and Hamdan, and it’d be hard for Tom Brady to succeed.
Oh well. Another week on a sinking ship. Maybe, the Cats will grab one they shouldn’t this season.
