Kentucky has new life after using complementary football to end long SEC losing streak

The Kentucky football program has not had much go right for it lately. The Cats have been reeling, haven’t won an SEC home game in forever, and were fresh off an embarrassing rivalry loss to Tennessee. Many signs pointed to the Wildcats being a loss away from unofficially ending the Mark Stoops era on Saturday night at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

This football team had other plans.

Stoops and his coaching staff found yet another way to rally this group. Kentucky got off the mat and played together for 60 minutes in front of 88,043 fans on Saturday night. All three phase chipped in. It was enough to earn a tough and gritty 10-3 win as a 10.5-point underdog. This group refuses to let go of the rope.

Kentucky (3-5, 1-5) has some life in November. If you squint, there is now a potential path to bowl eligibility with four games left in the regular season. The Cats got their by playing complementary football.

This one really was a Mark Stoops special.

Offense does just enough

Kentucky scored 10 points in regulation for the second time in three weeks. However, that was enough to get the win. Why was it enough? Because the Wildcats possessed the football, moved the chains on third down (6-of-13), and squeezed 10 points out of two scoring opportunities. The Cats had five possessions of eight plays or more and milked over four minutes off the game clock on four separate drives.

Mark Stoops has a style. Kentucky played to that style in a SEC grinder on Saturday night.

It was not pretty, there were mistakes (two interceptions), and the run game was ugly (64 yards on 24 carries from the tailbacks), but it was enough to win the game and consistently put the defense in some good situations.

The Cats only got nine possessions in the game and advanced to at least their own 37 in each possession. That allowed UK to play field position for most of the game and put Auburn’s defense in some tough spots. Bush Hamdan‘s offense was responsible from that.

Cutter Boley completed 18-of-29 passes for 161 yards and mostly kept the Cats in great shape outside of two interceptions. Kentucky was not explosive, but they quickly realized what type of game this was going to be, and played to it.

Leaving any contest with only 3.7 yards per play will not look good in the box score, but Kentucky’s offense won in some key situations and it set up the defense to win the game.

Defense dominates from start to finish

After the best performance of the season, defensive coordinator Brad White saw his unit get exposed and picked on by Tennessee’s vertical passing game. But often in football, styles makes fights. We saw that play out in the 10-3 victory on Saturday.

Auburn was going to utilizing a run-heavy script against Kentucky. That was playing into Kentucky’s hands. Quietly in the performance against Tennessee, UK’s run defense was very stout. It remained that way against Auburn and the Cats did not have to sacrifice coverage.

Kentucky played zone in the backend and asked their front to dominate the game. They did just that.

Auburn finished the game with three points in 10 possessions on just 3.4 yards per play. The Tigers had no drive that gained more than 46 yards and went three-and-out twice. Kentucky recorded seven sacks, five non-sack tackles for loss, and four pass breakups for a 22.5 percent havoc rate. After consecutive 100-yard performances, tailback Jeremiah Cobb was held to 72 yards on 20 carries, while Ashton Daniels and Jackson Arnold could not find success in the passing game.

The Tigers were just 7-of-19 (36.8%) on third and fourth down and finished the game with a paltry 33.8 percent offensive success rate. Kentucky dominated this matchup. After struggling with some SEC offenses, White and his crew have found some answers.

For the third time since 2020, Kentucky’s defense has held an SEC offense out of the endzone. Auburn’s two offensive touchdowns or less streak as extended to six SEC games on Saturday. The Cats were not rewarded for a defensive gem against Texas. They got rewarded for one in Week 10.

Kentucky’s defense dominated.

The third phase made a big impact

Auburn’s average starting field position was their own 18 across 10 drives on Saturday. Kentucky’s offense consistently flipped the field and set Aidan Laros up to make a big impact on this game. The veteran punter delivered.

The former FCS All-American averaged 43 yards net on six punts and pinned Auburn inside the 20 on every attempt. Meanwhile, the kickoff coverage team always made some plays and never let the Tigers have good field position. Outside of the short field thanks to a Cutter Boley interception in the second quarter, this is where Hugh Freeze‘s offense had to start each drive.

• Own 15
• Own 2
• Own 12
• Own 25
• Own 12
• Own 9
• Own 8
• Own 17
• Own 9

Auburn needed to go over 90 yards on four drives to score a touchdown. Auburn needed to go over 80 yards on eight drives to score a touchdown. Kentucky’s defense was feasting and got to play with field position. UK’s offense and special teams kept putting the ball on the tee for them on Saturday. They kept crushing it off the tee.

The Cats executed a winning plan in all three phases.

Ride the wave

The end felt near for Mark Stoops entering Week 10. Not many expected the Cats to come on the road and end an 11-game power conference losing streak against Auburn. But that is exactly what happened.

It wasn’t pretty, but somehow, UK got it done. Now a season that felt completely over has some life with four games to play.

Can Stoops and his program take advantage of this earned opportunity?

Kentucky will host a Florida team that is coming off a crushing loss to Georgia in the Cocktail Party. The Cats will then host a hot Tennessee Tech team before ending the year with road games versus playoff hopefuls Vanderbilt and Louisville. Getting to six wins doesn’t feel easy, but there is a clear path now. It felt like the path has not been clear for this team since the 35-13 loss to South Carolina in September.

College football is the best because of its madness. The pendulum can swing in wild directions on a week-to-week basis. After seeing everything go away from them, the Cats now have some momentum.

What can they do with it?

Stoops and his group took advantage of an opportunity. Getting that win meant a lot to them after a very tough season. Now they will get presented another big opportunity next week. After ending the program’s long two touchdowns or less streak, UK bounced-back to end the power conference losing streak one week later. Can they end another streak in Week 11 when the home losing streak is back in play?

This is going to be a ride. No one knows how it’s going to end but this Kentucky team will get rewarded for its win this week. Things will look different — one way or another — based on the result next week.

We are very much in one-week season now as the hot seat speculation should settle down some for a little bit. However, we are just one loss away from the hot meter in Big Blue Nation reaching uncomfortable levels again. Kentucky’s football program took a step in the right direction on Saturday. Can they make it two steps? We’re about to find out

Buckle in — this is going to be a ride. We are unsure how it will end. This is college football.