Kentucky Showed Character in Response at Tennessee

It’s hard to figure out this Kentucky football team. They’ve laid some eggs at home but played their best against the best in the country. Just when you’re out, they do enough to pull you back in.

On Saturday night at Neyland Stadium, the Wildcats showed a fight we did not know they still had in them. An injury-plagued Kentucky team had a halftime lead over the seventh-ranked team in the country. Even when they lost that lead, they got the ball back in the fourth quarter down only three points.

“Not the not the outcome that we’re looking for at all, but really do appreciate the toughness that our team displayed,” Mark Stoops opened with in his postgame press conference.

He added, “You’re gonna hit adversity. We talked about it all week. Just swing back and I do think our guys did that.”

Who Knew Kentucky Had This In Them?

Kentucky was far from great against Tennessee. If they were, they wouldn’t have lost by 10 points to a team that left a lot of points off the scoreboard. But let’s call a spade a spade, the Kentucky football program looked lifeless ahead of this game.

The Cats ended the game down 10 starters. They weren’t just physically banged up, over the last three losses the fight just wasn’t there. Defensive coordinator Brad White let his group know that was unacceptable.

“I thought the last couple of weeks was not up to our standard,” White said. “I thought the last couple of weeks, we didn’t swing and fight and compete to our standard. I thought the guys on that field tonight, no matter what the situation, they freaking scrapped and fought and fought. To rise up in the red zone as many times as they did, understanding the (injury) situation, I’m just so proud of those guys.”

For most of the game, Kentucky only had two healthy cornerbacks, true freshman Terhyon Nichols and second-year Naasir Addison. They weren’t perfect, letting the Vols efficiently move the ball, but when Kentucky desperately needed a big play, they delivered.

On the first possession, the Wildcats forced a field goal in the red zone that missed. They got off the field with a punt, and then forced a fumble. Then there was another missed field goal. The short-handed Kentucky defense didn’t let adversity snowball. They responded.

Can They Keep Responding?

That response was unexpected. White was asked after the game how can the team keep this mentality for the rest of the season.

“That’s a great question. It really is. Our standard is our standard. We minced no words in our defensive unit room this week about what that standard is and what it looks like when you don’t meet it,” he said.

“Wins and losses, especially in this league, they come, they go. You have great wins. You have tough losses. It’s heartbreak, all this and that. But your football character is what carries you through in life because your football character will carry over and bleed into your natural character. And if you’re going to quit or you’re going to fall down, or you’re going to blame, or you’re going to point fingers, then that’s going to happen the rest of your life. And so we had to have a good heart-to-heart reality check as a defense. I’m so freaking proud of those guys, because they responded. That’s what life is about, it’s about response.”

Kentucky is now 3-6 with three games to play. Getting to .500 to salvage the season will be a tall task. They have a bye week to get healthy. Then White will ask them once again to respond.

“To answer your question, listen, they got to stand up and they got to respond again, and then they got to do it again and again. We’re guaranteed three. If we want a fourth, you got to win three, but you can’t win three without one. So we hit this bye week. We’ll try to get as healthy as we can, but then we got to come out with that exact same mentality and swing. And then we got to do it again and again and again.”