Kentucky vs. Tennessee After Action Review

An After Action Review, or AAR for short, is a military process used to analyze what happened, why it happened, and how it can be done better. Thanks to our friends at the Kentucky Army National Guard, KSR applies that concept to analyze how the Wildcats fared against its most recent opponent. Here is the breakdown of pregame goals compared to results against Tennessee.

B.L.U.F. (Bottom Line Up Front)

Kentucky’s offense played winning football. The Kentucky defense did not. Tennessee beat Kentucky 45-42.

OFFENSE

The Wildcats totaled 612 yards, scored 42 points, converted 35 first downs, possessed the football for 46:08–and lost. Will Levis battled. The signal-caller completed 31 passes for 372 yards and threw three touchdown passes. UK’s run game got back on track after rushing for 225 yards including 109 from Chris Rodriguez Jr. Wan’Dale Robinson caught 13 passes for 166 yards and a touchdown. Wildcat tight ends played their best collective game of the season. Izayah Cummings is a surfacing star. The Louisville Male product registered four receptions for 75 yards and a touchdown. Brenden Bates and Justin Rigg combined for five more catches.

Kentucky spread the football around to seven different pass-catchers. The offensive line re-established the line of scrimmage for the most part. Yet, the Wildcats couldn’t muster a first down or a score in the game’s final quarter when it mattered the most. Losing the football game that featured Liam Coen’s best offensive output of the season was a bitter pill to swallow. So much of this football game wasn’t logical. Let’s compare offensive goals vs. outcomes.

Run the football: Exceed 175 yards

YES. The Cats committed to and remained with its rushing attack to run for 225 yards. Chris Rodriguez Jr. was purposeful and powerful by plowing his way to exceed the century mark. Will Levis’ acrobatically converted third down plays and finished the game with 15 carries for 47 yards and a couple of scores.

Win Time of Possession

YES. By one and a half episodes of MASH. The Kentucky offense did its job by maintaining possession for a whopping 46:08. Normally, that number paints the narrative for a dominant win. But, not in this case. Tennessee scored quickly and in bunches.

Hold on to the Football

YES. Kind of. Will Levis’ pick-6 hurt. There’s no way around that fact. But, UK didn’t cough up the football in an alarming fashion as it has for most of the season.

Score a Bunch of Points

YES. 42 points should have been enough for a victory.

DEFENSE

Oh boy. I said that Kentucky couldn’t get into a track meet with Tennessee earlier this week. It did. UT was competing in the sprint events while the ‘Cats were over at the shot put circle. Both offenses achieved 40-plus points but did so in different ways. UT’s scores were effortless. The Cats had to strain for all of its points. Tennessee reached the end zone on a 75-yard touchdown pass on the game’s first play after poor tackling resurfaced. It really didn’t get much better for the next ~59 minutes.

Hendon Hooker and his corps of playmakers sliced and diced the UK pass defense for an astounding 15.8 yards per pass attempt and 21 yards per catch. Tennessee needed just 47 plays to accumulate 461 yards. The visitors averaged an amazing 9.8 yards per play. That’s a first down every time the football was snapped. The Vols had four pass catchers that averaged over 20 yards per reception. Tennessee was as we expected–explosive and a matchup nightmare.

The Wildcats held the nation’s 13th leading rushing offense to 145 yards. But UT really didn’t need to run the football after pretty much scoring at will through the air. UK defensive coordinator Brad White took responsibility after the game.

“At the end of the day, when you get an offense like this that spreads you out that wide, there’s going to be some opportunities that you gotta make plays. I gotta continue to find calls that help our guys, that they feel confident in executing. Again, that’s on me.”

Here’s how the UK defense fared against pregame goals.

Slow the Vol’s Roll

NO. Tempo hurt Kentucky for 60 minutes. UT’s splits and alignment also led to multiple one on one scenarios that were won by Tennessee playmakers. Kentucky had difficulties lining up correctly prior to the Volunteers’ warp speed snaps.

Compete

NO. Mark Stoops had this to say after the game.

“We are being put on an island on certain situations that we’re not winning enough. We’re not winning enough battles.” The head coach then went on to say, “A team like that puts an awful lot of stress on you sideline to sideline and then obviously the with the vertical passing game. We didn’t keep up with them, we didn’t tackle very good in space and we didn’t cover very good.”

Missed tackles and losses at the top of routes were too prevalent. UK managed to record five quarterback sacks. But for the most part, Hooker stood tall in the pocket and dissected the Wildcat’s pass defense. Kentucky registered just one pass breakup in Hooker’s 20 attempts. Vito Tisdale was active and led the team with six total tackles.

The ‘Cats actually came up with some critical stops and forced a couple of field goal attempts. So, saying that Kentucky’s defense didn’t compete is misleading and applies more to losing one on one matchups and not so much about effort. UK played hard, but it didn’t have an answer to the up-tempo Volunteers.

Tackle

NO. Bad tackling started with Georgia and has gone through Tennessee.

Make an Extraordinary Play

YES. Again, UK sacked Hooker five times, forced a turnover, and held UT’s potent offense to two field goal attempts. In a night that featured multiple no-answer possessions, the defense gave the offense a couple of opportunities.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Kentucky was coming off its best third phase performance of the season against Mississippi State. That didn’t carry over to the Tennessee game.

Repeat Performance

NO. Matt Ruffolo missed a 51-yard field goal attempt. One kickoff (not on purpose) fell short of the goal line and was returned 31 yards by Velus Jones Jr. A purposeful short kick lacked height and Jimmy Holiday ran it back 33-yards.

What Does All This Mean?

Quarterback Will Levis put the ‘Cats on his back and battled. He threw for 372 yards, rushed for 47, and caught a 15-yard pass. Levis sacrificed his body on many occasions by going airborne in order to move the chains. In other words, Levis played his guts out. Was he perfect? No. But the football was in his hands on 64 plays including runs and passes. It’s a darn shame that his efforts were for a losing cause due to the Wildcat’s inability to cover the forward pass.

Kentucky has gone from a defense that was tops in the SEC against the pass in 2019 and 2020 to a unit that allowed opposing quarterbacks to complete a combined 65/79 passes for 910 yards and eight touchdowns against Georgia, Mississippi State, and Tennessee. Stetson Bennett IV, Will Rogers, and Hendon Hooker have completed 82.2% of their passes over the past three games.

So, where do we go from here? Nashville. Vanderbilt is not a good football team. Mark Stoops’ team is 6-3 and coming off two disturbing losses that have exposed defensive deficiencies that may not be fixable until the 2022 season. Remember, it’s not personal, it’s personnel. The ‘Cats simply have to cover the pass better. But how?

Pass defense starts with the rush. Manufacturing consistent pressure on the quarterback would take the red-hot pressure off vulnerable defensive backs. More blitzes perhaps? That plan would put the secondary in man-to-man coverage which has not been a successful formula as of late. Football is a game of matchups. Mississippi State and Tennessee were awful matchups for this defense. Unfortunately, Louisville will present many of the same stressors in the season finale.

There has been quite a bit of turnover for the Kentucky defense. Coaches and players have rotated in and out of the Joe Craft Football Training Center over the past three years. UK has seen three sets of cornerbacks depart for the NFL. Replacing five defensive NFL selections from a year ago was my number one concern going into 2021.

Injuries have added up as well. Losing Octavius Oxendine really hurt. Same with Marquan McCall and Jordan Wright. Attrition is a part of football. Being down in personnel is not an excuse and experienced by all 14 teams in the Southeastern Conference. Depth players have to transition into trustable starters and contributors. UK’s defensive woes can’t be blamed on one single position. The last three games have exposed liabilities along all three levels.

Saturday’s loss hurt. The Big Blue Nation has suffered through so many losses to our southern neighbors. To this day, I can remember the thud sound of the football hitting a Tennessee player’s shoulder pads after I threw a pick-6 vs. the Vols in 1989. That sound haunts me still. So yes, I feel the same as most of you that are reading this post. This rivalry game is personal. Everybody is frustrated. Fans, coaches, players, and this writer. Losing stinks. The aroma of losing to Tennessee is just worse.

A 6-0 start led to unrealistic expectations of this football team. While I didn’t share in the enthusiasm of Playoff projections; I can be blamed for my part in building up the mid-season excitement for the 2021 Wildcats. I’m not apologizing for that either. 6-0 was fun and extremely rare. But, I’ve also been a fan of several teams that were already out of bowl contention soon after Halloween. I’m going to let this season play out. There’s a great deal of football left.

Again, where do we go from here? Nashville.

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