KSR Today: Back to square one for Kentucky football

“Oh no! We suck again!”

Good grief, Kentucky football. I just can’t quite figure you out — or you can’t quite figure yourself out, rather. Riding high on a three-game winning streak with victories over Auburn, Florida and Tennessee Tech, the Wildcats entered as manageable 8.5-point underdogs at Vanderbilt with the likes of Kirk Herbstreit and Scott Van Pelt picking Mark Stoops’ troops to cover in Nashville. Hell, I had ’em winning outright, ruining Diego Pavia’s Senior Night and going into that Louisville game playing with house money with bowl eligibility already secured.

That did not happen. None of it happened. Not only did they not win or cover, but they didn’t even get off the bus as the Commodores absolutely dominated from start to finish with zero pushback from the blue and white. Pavia threw for 484 yards and five touchdowns with 48 rushing yards and a score before getting pulled up a million early in the fourth quarter, earning a standing ovation upon his exit at Kentucky’s expense. It was 45-3 until two garbage-time touchdowns cut it to 28 points with just two seconds left on the clock, the Wildcats racking up just 86 total yards in the first 43 minutes and change.

But, hey, at least Cutter Boley became the first Kentucky freshman quarterback to throw for 280 yards in a true SEC road game since Jared Lorenzen, who went for 328 at Tennessee in 2000! He also topped the Hefty Lefty’s freshman record for 12 touchdowns against conference foes. The kid is good and his future is blindingly bright, but it’s on Stoops (or whoever else is coaching here) to keep him in Lexington — because the biggest names in the sport will trip over themselves chasing after him this offseason, legal or not.

Until then, like we all hoped to avoid, it comes down to the Louisville game for a sixth win and postseason participation. Dreams of 7-5 and potentially sneaking into a really fun bowl with a shot at eight wins are dead. Now, the road matchup against the Cardinals — who just got pummeled 38-6 by SMU and appear defeated as a program with three straight losses — will decide whether the season was just okay or simply not good enough. It’s slightly better than where we were coming out of that Tennessee embarrassment a month ago, but still not where you want to be.

“We weren’t very good,” Stoops said after the 45-17 loss. “The good news is it counts as one game. It felt like a lot more, but we have to regroup quickly and get ready for a big football game next week.”

Everything Mark Stoops said after Vandy

What else did the head coach have to say about his team’s abysmal performance in Nashville? Stoops gave credit where it was due while acknowledging the Wildcats took a step back after several steps forward in recent weeks.

“A really tough game, obviously a very discouraging performance by us, and not very good,” he opened. “I have to credit them. That’s a very good football team in all areas. Very physical, a team that’s definitely worthy of being in the playoffs, with a quarterback that is something else, that’s for sure. Super good football player. They had a great plan, and when that plan breaks down, he makes plays.”

Watch his postgame press conference below:

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Coordinators and players share their thoughts on the 28-point loss

Brad White’s unit couldn’t get a stop while Bush Hamdan’s never even started — not until the game was well out of reach, at least. They both talked about their sides of the football, followed by Cutter Boley and Grant Godfrey.

“We gotta find a way,” White said. “Myself, I’ve got to do a better job. As coaches, we’ve got to figure out what we can do to help guys in certain instances. Collectively, as a unit, we’ve got to play better.”

“We struggled to move the ball all night,” Hamdan added. “It was pretty apparent, probably halfway through the first quarter, we needed to use tempo and we couldn’t even get in a rhythm to get going, to be honest with you. Hats off to Vanderbilt and the job they did, they caused a lot of issues. We got beaten in every facet.”

KSR’s Rapid Reaction was not as fun

The post-Loyola Rapid Reaction was loose, to say the least, a silly liquid liquid-courage-filled show from the football guys in Nashville, brought to you in the most ridiculous way possible — KSR’s motto for decades. This one? Not so fun, but necessary, with Nick Roush and Adam Luckett joined by Tyler Thompson to talk through the bad performance and what it all means for the Cats.

Hey, at least Kenny Brooks owns Louisville!

As bad as things were on the football field, they were just fine at the KFC Yum! Center for Kenny Brooks and the UK women’s basketball team — quite the shift from how things unfolded for the men’s team in that same building.

The Wildcats led by just two at the half following a back-and-forth start, but used a 20-6 run in the third quarter to take a 57-41 lead going into the final segment, only to close out with a double-digit 72-62 win over the Dirty Birds.

Kentucky shot 52.5 percent from the field overall and 26.7 percent from three compared to 39.7 percent overall and 37.5 percent from deep for Louisville. Individually, Tonie Morgan led the way with 19 points, seven assists and five rebounds as she flirted with a triple-double, followed by Clara Strack with a double-double of her own with 17 points and 10 rebounds, plus another 17 points and eight boards for Teonni Key.

Check out Brooks, Morgan and Strack at the podium after the big win — a second straight for the program in this new era:

And a celebratory KSR Rapid Reaction — much happier than the football one, including a Louisville Sucks shirt worn by Phoenix Stevens:

Kentucky VB begins SEC Tournament run in Savannah

Speaking of dominant teams on campus doing their jobs all season, don’t forget that Craig Skinner’s Winners take the floor today with the Wildcats set to begin their SEC Tournament run as the No. 1 seed in Savannah.

They’ll take on the No. 8 seed Auburn Tigers coming off their 3-2 win on Saturday over No. 9 seed Oklahoma, this match scheduled for 12 p.m. ET on SEC Network.

The winner of that one (hopefully the Cats) will take on the winner of No. 4 seed Tennessee vs. No. 5 seed Florida, scheduled for 2 p.m. ET, on Monday at 6 p.m. ET.

It’s the first SEC Volleyball Tournament since 2005 — and, led by SEC Coach of the Year Craig Skinner, SEC Player of the Year and SEC Newcomer of the Year Eva Hudson and SEC Freshman of the Year Kassie O’Brien, the Cats want to go win it.

“I’m proud of our team for the regular season success that we’ve had, and I’m proud of our players for getting their individual awards — those are well-deserved — but you typically don’t get a lot of individual awards if your team doesn’t have success. So proud in both areas there,” Skinner said leading up to the event. “Savannah is a new twist to our season and the cool thing is all eyes in the volleyball world will be on the SEC and our league, how our championship goes. It’s an exciting time.”