I'm not giving the team a free pass, but I think Stoops explained what happened early....The defense was over-pursuing trying to make the spectacular play instead of doing their job and staying home. All the big runs were primarily cut backs and the D had no one on the back side. As for the pick 6...That was a very bad play by a very rusty QB. The DBs made some plays early or it could have been an ugly game. But other than the 1st quarter, UK basically did what they were supposed to do.
The responses in this (and several other) thread just show that no matter what happens, there will be some on here who will call for Stoops and Barnhart to be fired.
At the beginning of the year many were just wanting to go to a bowl game. Now that's happening, after going .500 in the SEC, all with a QB who was never supposed to see the field this year and after losing several key pieces to our defense. After the Southern Miss/Florida debacles, the team changed things up and got better. We beat everyone we were supposed to beat, upset two teams (according to Vegas odds) and lost to two teams with noticeably better talent than us. One of those two games we lost due to a horrible fumble and an even worse dropped TD that turned into an IT. Neither of those botches are on the coaches.
So again, if all you can take out of getting our sixth win is that we need to fire the head coach, you should probably just go find another team to root for. UK football will never make you happy.