BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A 6-7 record hangs over the Kentucky football season and Joker Phillips’ first year as head coach like a nasty storm cloud.Sure, there’s plenty of sunny opportunities on the other side of the cloud, but the black mark of a losing record has a way of tainting things. It has a way of erasing the buzz of Phillips’ first year as head coach, spoiling one of the best individual performances by a player (Randall Cobb) in school history and underscoring a team that had its opportunities, but failed to capitalize on them.”It’s very disappointing,” junior Randall Cobb said. “It’s something I’ve been preaching about all season. We didn’t execute. … We had a great game plan; we just didn’t execute.”And so, with a 27-10 loss to Pittsburgh on Saturday in the BBVA Compass Bowl, the season will end on a sour note. For the first time in five years, Kentucky will enter the offseason with a losing record. After a three-game bowl winning streak, the Cats have now lost their last two bowl games. “This is not the way you want to end your career, with a loss like this when you prepared for a month and you know what to expect, then you go out there and look like poop,” an emotional Ricky Lumpkin said. “We were out there on defense calling when they were going to run the ball, yet we couldn’t stop it.”And that’s what made this season so frustrating. For a coach who preached discipline and execution all season long, the Kentucky players seemed to lack both when it mattered the most.The Cats knew Pittsburgh was going to try to run the ball down their throats. And yet Pitt did it anyways. The Kentucky coaches knew they had to get the ball in their best players’ hands. And yet Cobb and Derrick Locke didn’t touch it enough. UK knew it couldn’t afford to turn the ball over. And yet it did with poorly executed fourth-down plays.Talent is no longer an excuse. After four winning seasons and five bowl game appearances, Kentucky has the talent. The Cats just simply fell short of executing and building upon bigger expectations this year. It will either be a vital learning lesson as the program moves forward with Phillips or a setback in transition.”We’ve got to try to take the next step,” Phillips said as he looked to the future. “You can’t come into every season talking about how young we are. We expect those guys to mature in a hurry. I’m talking about mature on and off the field. The way we take this program, even to the next level, is we have to be a really good, disciplined team and physical football team – similar to what we saw today.”Pittsburgh was just flat out more physical than UK from the start of Saturday’s game, bullying the Cats defensive front and running at will. The Panthers gashed Kentucky for 261 rushing yards, running for an average of 5.7 yards per play. “(They) whipped our butt,” newly hired co-defensive coordinator Rick Minter said. “What we saw out there on the field today defensively, while I’m not discouraged, is unacceptable – totally unacceptable.”Arguably the three biggest plays of the game came on fourth down, the ultimate teller of execution.Tied at 3-3 in the second quarter with UK driving at the Pitt 37, Phillips elected to go for it on fourth-and-less-than-a-yard.  Sophomore quarterback Morgan Newton, playing for the suspended Mike Hartline, was stuffed at the line on a quarterback sneak. Pitt took advantage with a 33-yard field goal to go up 6-3.”Good heavens,” Newton said, “it’s my fault. I’ve got to be more aware on the (sneak). I’ve just got to get the first down.”One drive later, Kentucky was taking no chances on going for it on fourth down again. Faced with a fourth-and-11 from the UK 41-yard line, Pitt’s Andrew Taglianetti snuck into the backfield untouched and blocked Ryan Tydlacka’s punt. Pittsburgh recovered at the Kentucky 10 and scored three players later. “Blocked punt, that was the game there,” Locke said. “The momentum, it killed us.”The fourth-down woes weren’t over. Early in the third quarter, with momentum seemingly hanging in the balance and the Cats trailing 13-3, UK tried to fake a punt with wide receiver Matt Roark. Before Roark could get a pass off on fourth-and-8, he was sacked for a 12-yard loss.Pitt took the short field and scored four plays later to take a commanding 20-3 lead. But even more discouraging was the lack of touches Locke and Cobb received. Playing in perhaps his final game in a Kentucky uniform, Cobb got just nine offensive touches and only three in the first half. Meanwhile, Locke, despite a 5.9 rushing average, carried the ball just 12 times.”We had some plays dialed up for Randall, but we didn’t get the ball to him enough, obviously,” Phillips said. “It is always been said when you don’t win the game, that you didn’t get the ball enough to Randall, didn’t get the ball enough to Locke, didn’t get the ball to our playmakers, that is always going to be said.”It was a frustrating end to a frustrating season, a year in which opportunities were abound (momentum off a South Carolina win, a down year in the Southeastern Conference East and a manageable schedule), but UK couldn’t capitalize on.Perhaps Locke, a departing senior, said it best when looking at the future of the program.”With the coaches we’ve got now, I think that the young guys have got to take advantage of what we got here,” Locke said. “I want them to take advantage of (the coaches). If they get on your butt, just say, ‘Yes, sir. What do you want me to do? What can I do to get better?’ If they carry that into next season and can really be coachable, they’ll be a good team. We’ve got talent.”Not all is lost after one losing season, but opportunities were missed. For the first time in a long time, Kentucky didn’t take the next step forward.