KSR Today: Kentucky football continues to have no answers

Your home stadium should not be cleared out by the start of the fourth quarter and overtaken by rival fans in a sea of puke orange with Rocky Top on repeat like Knoxville North. It’s not on Big Blue Nation, either — why would they stay? Tennessee is running up the score with Josh Heupel deciding what the final difference will be, Kentucky‘s head coach acknowledging “they really took it to us” because “we didn’t have answers.”

“It’s a tough matchup for us right now. Let’s just leave it at that,” Mark Stoops said at the podium as I frantically searched for my tiny violin to play for the $9 million man.

Why show up to begin with if that’s your mindset? We stink and they’re good, let’s just leave it at that. Quite the motivator to keep Kroger Field filled up with your own fans. I’m sure they’re just itching to get back for Florida on November 8 or, even better, Tennessee Tech on Nov. 15. That is gonna be a special environment, bringing in the undefeated Golden Eagles, currently sitting at 8-0 and first in the OVC. You never know, maybe that’s a purple and gold fourth-quarter takeover, too?

Whether it’s a pair of wins, losses or the games are split, the home schedule is once again a waste. 11 straight losses at Kroger Field to Power 4 competition, an embarrassing streak running since before the birth of my first son, who just celebrated his second birthday last weekend. He’s lived his entire life without seeing the Wildcats beat a team with a pulse in Lexington.

Stoops’ message to fans like me on whether there is light at the end of this long, dark tunnel?

“I understand. I mean, it’s a results business, and the results have not been there. For me, I can’t get caught up and worried about all that,” he said. “I’m frustrated. I hurt for our team. I hurt for the fans. There’s a lot of people that invest a lot, including all of us. But I understand that, that fans and anybody else has every right to be frustrated, mad, you know, whatever it is. But for myself, I hurt for the team. We’ve invested a lot.”

My personal opinion is that change is inevitable and delaying it only puts you in a worse spot looking for the next guy. If you’re sure about starting a new era — and I don’t know how you couldn’t be watching this product — turn the rest of the season into a well-deserved celebration tour for the all-time winningest coach in Kentucky football history while making inroads on his replacement, ideally Jon Sumrall or Will Stein. It doesn’t have to get any uglier than this and you don’t have to wait for more jobs to open up to make life harder on you when closing on your top targets. This can become a positive thing, feeding a ravenous fanbase currently watching Indiana and Vanderbilt sit comfortably in the top 10 as College Football Playoff contenders just a few years removed from two-win seasons. Excuses that it can’t be done in Lexington are lame.

Now, we wait. How long? That’s up to the decision makers as pressure mounts for Stoops and company. Until then, it’s back to business as usual while we cross our fingers for some movement sooner rather than later.

KSR’s Sad Rapid Reaction

What was it like watching it all unfold, blue thinning out as orange picked up at Kroger Field in yet another disgusting loss for Kentucky football? Let Drew Franklin, Nick Roush and Adam Luckett explain.

Mark Stoops doesn’t stay at the podium long

There wasn’t a lot to say for Stoops because there weren’t too many questions to ask outside of the obvious of the current trajectory of Kentucky football. That’s why he only talked for eight minutes, finding the positives in the offensive growth with Cutter Boley under center, but inconsistency everywhere else.

Oh, and he said the decision to go for the two-point conversion was stupid.

What did the players, coaches have to say?

Again, Boley was awesome. The future is extremely bright for him — hopefully in Lexington, priority No. 1 for the next guy. He went for 330 yards with five touchdowns on 26-35 passing, finding standouts in DJ Miller on the outside while Kendrick Law also stepped up for a pair of 100-yard pass-catchers. Kentucky also found something in Jason Patterson in the backfield.

Hear about the offensive strides with the Wildcats putting up 34 points and 476 yards from Bush Hamdan and Boley, then the disastrous defensive effort under Brad White’s leadership on Saturday.

“I’m taking it day by day. We gotta go 1-0,” Boley said of his thoughts after the loss. “These guys are in here working their tail off every single day, coming to the facility regardless of the circumstances. I’m really proud of these guys. I’m really proud of the coaching staff. They’re busting their tails upstairs and putting us in the best position to try to win.”

I guess we can include Josh Heupel’s postgame comments, too

I don’t personally care to hear what Heupel had to say after his team’s 22-point win in Lexington, but maybe you do? Scroll right on past it if you agree with me, or you can dig deeper and get angrier. Totally your call.

“Proud of our guys, the way they competed, coming on the road (and) getting a win,” he said. “It’s a team that took Texas to overtime a week ago and has lost some close ones. In that way, really pleased with the performance. Offense, defense, both units, there are things that we can certainly clean up as well and we’ll need to as we keep going through conference play.”

---

Now, back to celebrating that win over No. 1 Purdue and getting ready for Georgetown this week.