Monday Huddle: Fork in the Road

Kentucky’s performance on Saturday in the 24-14 home loss to South Carolina in front of a sold-out crowd at Kroger Field was a very tough pill for players, coaches, and fans to swallow. Once again, Kentucky has lost multiple games in a row under Mark Stoops and must get things turned around quickly.

For another night game on the SEC Network, Kentucky will host Mike Leach’s third Mississippi State team. The Bulldogs are playing some good football as the SEC West squad is off to a 5-1 start and has scored 39-plus points in every game outside of their loss to LSU.

Kentucky has its hands full this week as the team faces a fork in the road moment. Win and get the season back on track. Lose, and you’re staring at a potential 6-6 year. It’s put up or shut up time.

KSR’s Monday Huddle is here to set the table for the most important game of the year.

First Down: Can Rich Scangarello counterpunch?

Kentucky was put in a bad spot when the Wildcats had to play an SEC game without Will Levis at quarterback. The redshirt senior said on the official University of Kentucky pregame show that he will return to the lineup this weekend. Until something is made official, we’re still on injury watch. Regardless of his status, offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello is facing some real pressure for the first time since arriving in Lexington.

The former NFL assistant coach is leading an offense with some legitimate NFL skill talent, but the Cats are only putting up 26.3 points per game and have yet to score more than 31 offensive points in a single game this season. Despite having a quarterback that is averaging 10 yards per attempt, the Cats are struggling.

Kentucky’s offense ranks at the bottom of the SEC in multiple statistical categories.

• Yards Per Play: 5.69 (No. 11)
• Sacks Allowed: 25 (No. 14)
• Tackles For Loss Allowed: 42 (No. 12)
• Turnovers: 10 (T-10)
• Red Zone TD Rate: 58.33% (No. 11)
• Gains of 20+ yards: 26 (No. 12)
• Total Plays: 376 (No. 12)

In three SEC games, Kentucky has only scored 52 offensive points and has had multiple scoring opportunity blunders from per-snap penalties to untimely turnovers. The offense has not been helped by a shaky kicking game, but overall, havoc plays are setting back an offense that is not getting many swings at the plate due to the snail’s pace the Cats have been playing with.

With all of that said, we do need to acknowledge that Scangarello has only had his full assortment of weapons for four games. Kentucky was without All-SEC tailback Chris Rodriguez Jr. for the entire month of September and then had to play without star quarterback Will Levis against South Carolina.

Things have been clunky for the offense all season, and the line situation in Lexington is an absolute mess as OL coach Zach Yenser has started five different combinations in six games. There have been some pretty big speed bumps to get through, but enough football has been played to admit that the offense has been disappointing.

At the end of the day, Kentucky is not scoring enough points as the coaching staff is failing to maximize the talented wide receiver and tight end personnel on the roster. The Cats aren’t doing a great job scheming around their inefficiencies, and the lack of execution in key situations has been a problem all season.

There is still time to turn things around for Scangarello, and the bye week will serve as a very important self-scout period as Kentucky will look to break some tendencies. However, Kentucky must face Mississippi State first, and the Bulldogs have been putting up points in bunches.

To turn the year around, Kentucky must take care of business at home on Saturday night. To do that, the offense must break out of this slump and put some points on the board.

This is a very important week for Rich Scangarello.

Second Down: Chris Rodriguez Jr. is back

It wasn’t all bad for the Kentucky offense in Saturday’s home loss. The Cats received a vintage performance from their All-SEC tailback against South Carolina.

Chris Rodriguez Jr. rushed for 126 yards on 22 attempts averaging 5.7 yards per pop. However, it was the efficiency that made a huge difference. Rodriguez logged a 63.6 percent success rate with four rushes of 10-plus yards. As a team, Kentucky posted a 56.7 percent rushing success rate against a bad South Carolina run defense.

That is excellent, but the passing game let the team down in the loss. Luckily, getting Will Levis back should help fix some of those issues as throwing the football has been the best thing Kentucky has done all season.

Eliminating sacks and non-sack tackles for loss remains a huge issue for the Cats as this offensive line still needs to improve, but getting efficient rushing from Rodriguez along with explosive passing from Levis should help unlock this offense in the last six games of the season.

Now Kentucky needs to get its full arsenal on the field at the same time to reach its ceiling.

Third Down: Kentucky must eliminate sloppy football

There will be many criticisms of the Kentucky offense this week, and many of them are deserved. Fumbles and a pre-snap penalty cost the Cats a win at Ole Miss. However, the offense isn’t the only unit not playing clean football.

The kicking game has been a disaster as Kentucky saw a punt get blocked and a field goal attempt doink off of the upright on Saturday. UK’s lackluster play in the kicking game is taking points off of the board for an offense that is having issues finishing drives on top of giving up some key hidden yardage. Kentucky must improve in the third phase.

For most of the season, Brad White’s defense has carried the team, and his group put together a very good first half against South Carolina, but the dam broke in the second half. Poor leverage led to a 42-yard touchdown on a wide receiver screen, and a good run defense got leaky as Carolina attacked the edges. Meanwhile, the Cats saw a season-high in missed tackles (12) as the unit had one of their worst performances of the season.

Kentucky is a sloppy football team at the halfway point. Mark Stoops and his entire coaching staff must get things cleaned up quickly before this season begins to spiral.

The week ahead at KSR

Kentucky has its back firmly against the wall heading into the final game before the bye week. We’re about to learn a lot about this football team. For Kentucky to turn this season around, a win must be recorded against Mississippi State on Saturday night. There is no getting around it.

KSR will be here throughout the week to provide you with some non-stop football content. There will be coverage of Mark Stoops’ Monday press conference, practice reports throughout the week, and new podcast episodes from The KSR Football Podcast on Monday and 11 Personnel on Wednesday. Pick 3 will then go live on Thursday as KSR’s gambling trio provides some more locks.

Kentucky has met a fork in the road. Saturday night will tell us a lot.