KSR Today: Lane Kiffin gets his revenge on Mark Stoops (and BBN is not happy)

Photo via Mont Dawson, Kentucky Sports Radio

Have you ever seen a fanbase more defeated than Big Blue Nation coming off a one-score loss to a top-20 opponent, desperate for revenge after Kentucky pulled off the upset on Ole Miss’ home turf this time last year to end their College Football Playoff hopes? The Wildcats won the turnover margin and time of possession battle while dominating at times defensively, committing fewer penalties and holding the Rebels to just 3-13 on third-down conversions. How about Seth McGowan? The senior running back punched it in twice for the offense in yet another solid day on the ground overall.

Ask a Kentucky fan how they’re feeling this morning, though, and the answers won’t vary too much. We’re down bad — and rightly so, because this offense is a disaster that doesn’t appear to be getting fixed anytime soon.

As Zach Calzada so eloquently stated during the ABC broadcast, “What the **** are we doing?”

Just ridiculous pic.twitter.com/2f5YRrDYFy
— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) September 6, 2025

No, seriously, what are we doing? What is this team’s offensive identity? If the gears are turning too slowly at QB1 and the wide receivers can’t get any separation, why are your standout running backs combining for fewer carries than Calzada’s total passing attempts? And why are 28 percent of the rushes split between the quarterbacks? Why are calls still coming in at the end of the play clock with players just as confused as the fans screaming expletives from the stands and their couches at home?

The offensive operation looked like a poorly coached Pee-Wee football team practicing for the first time. I’d call it an absolute clown show, but that would be disrespectful to clowns — because they’re at least somewhat entertaining and the circus is a cohesive product. Ringmasters at least have a rhyme or reason for their acts, because that’s what’s supposed to happen with months of preparation in whatever their version of spring ball and fall camp looks like.

It’s not about unfairly kicking the team while it’s down or being unreasonable as an emotional fan. ABC openly mocked the Kentucky coaches and their decisions, saying the Wildcats should defer instead of taking the ball to open the second half, adding, “It just does not look like a well-coached football team, in terms of the management and the operation.”

“These are the types of things that, if you are on the hot seat, get you fired,” the crew doubled down.

Lane Kiffin did the same, calling the Wildcats “pretty much one-dimensional” thanks to their passing struggles.

That’s not even counting the end-of-half yakety sax or stubborn, ego-driven go-for-it decisions in the fourth quarter, focused on temper tantrums with the officials or the potential told-you-so with reporters at the podium after trying it their way for a change instead of the conservative approach Mark Stoops knows and loves.

Either way, it was losing football, something BBN has gotten plenty used to with eight straight SEC home losses and nine straight against power-conference foes at Kroger Field. That’s a lot of hard-earned money down the drain and disappointed drives home for a fanbase that deserves better.

A ‘really inexcusable’ operation

To his credit, as bad as the offensive coaching and time management were on Saturday, Stoops called it what it is after the fact: inexcusable.

When asked about yet another two-minute offensive failure before halftime, the head coach said the operation must improve.

“It’s really inexcusable, to be totally honest with you,” he said. “There’s things where we are trying to get the best personnel we can with certain plays and certain things. We’ve got to be better. We’ve just got to function better.”

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That led to a second-half change, calling a meeting with the offensive staff to ‘(get) that rectified.’

“That’s on us. Put it all together, and it was messy,” Stoops continued. “Operationally, we’ve been very smooth. I think we’re trying to do too much with matching personnel and changing some people out. We talked about that at halftime, cleaned that up. That really pissed me off.”

It’s Cutter Boley time

The current product absolutely stinks, but maybe the future is on the up and up? All eyes are on the quarterback position after Calzada not only underwhelmed for a second consecutive game (15/30, 149 yards), but also reinjured his surgically-repaired throwing shoulder to miss the end of the loss.

“He was hurt,” Stoops said afterward. “I don’t know the extent. … Let’s just look at it the way it is. I mean, he’s banged up. I don’t know to what extent I would think he would more than likely miss Monday or Tuesday, I would think.”

Insert Cutter Boley, who made his season debut after a late push for the starting job in fall camp, finishing 1/3 for 38 yards to go with 14 rushing yards on four carries. You didn’t learn a ton in the six minutes he played, but considering Calzada’s health and lack of production, Stoops made it clear we should expect to see the kid take over against Eastern Michigan next week as the staff reevaluates the position.

“I want to see Cutter. Yeah,” he said at the podium. “I want to see him. Yeah.”

The messaging was the same in his postgame chat with Tom Leach.

“I think Cutter deserves the opportunity.”

Lane Kiffin says it was identical to last year — with a different finish

Remember how good Kentucky felt leaving Oxford last season after pulling off the road upset? That’s how Ole Miss feels leaving Lexington with the same game script, but different finish — this time favoring Kiffin’s squad.

He was quite happy about that.

“That game, a lot towards the end, was a lot like last year,” Kiffin said. “Just all three phases went the other way last year. … This was the exact opposite. … Coming on the road in the SEC and winning is a hard thing to do. You play four of these, for now. We play four every year, and they’re hard. You just have a relief to cross them off and get wins on the road. I’m proud of our guys.”

Funny you say that, Lane, because we feel the exact opposite about it all, too.

Hey, at least we have the NFL?

It’s the first NFL Sunday of the season, and that’s pretty exciting. Check out the schedule as we try to close out the weekend with a little bit more fun than we had Saturday afternoon.