Cats Working to Return to Identity at South Carolina
For almost seven years now, Mark Stoops, his coaches and players have tirelessly reshaped the culture of Kentucky football. Over the last few seasons, that culture has yielded an identity of physicality and discipline. On-field results – three consecutive bowl berth and a 10-win season in 2018 – were the natural outgrowth of both.
Now, the Wildcats have lost two straight games. The most recent came on the road at Mississippi State in a performance that saw UK start slowly, make too many mistakes to count and throw 42 times against just 28 rushes.
With the blip in results and diversion from its identity, Kentucky is relying on its culture to get back on track.
“We don’t necessarily panic in our building,” Stoops said. “We like to get back to work and get better.”
That’s exactly what UK (2-2, 0-2 Southeastern Conference) has done this week leading up to a trip to face South Carolina (1-3, 0-2 SEC) at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. It began with a painful though necessary breakdown of what went wrong in Starkville, Mississippi. There was certainly plenty of material.
In addition to that run-pass imbalance, Sawyer Smith threw a pick-six on UK’s first possession. Later his receivers dropped passes, three of which would have gone for touchdowns. There were a pair of missed field goals and on defense UK allowed Garrett Shrader and Kylin Hill to run for a combined 245 yards.
“This was one of the worst games we played in a while as far as being precise in our fits,” Stoops said. “Then we weren’t as physical as we have been. It’s not just simply a physicality issue. It’s also about the precision and executing our defense and doing your job. We were not very detailed in executing the defense this past week.”
In spite of that, the Cats cut a deficit that was 18 points at halftime to eight in the fourth quarter, and it could have been fewer.
“That’s actually kind of amazing to me because when you look at the film, there are so many areas that we need to improve,” Stoops said. “It wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t up to our standards and expectations.”
The beauty of September in college football is the next opportunity is usually only a week away. As it happens, South Carolina will be counting on exactly the same thing in the midst of three losses in its first four games. The Gamecocks fell victim to a pair of defensive touchdowns by Missouri in a 34-14 road defeat last weekend.
Saturday will also mark South Carolina’s next opportunity to end a five-game losing streak to Kentucky, but Stoops is letting the folks in Columbia, South Carolina, think about that. He has more pressing concerns.
“I don’t think it’s going to matter to us going up in that meeting room today what the last five years were,” Stoop said. “Really we have to have great preparation. We have to have a great week. We have to win this game throughout the week. I have to do a better job motivating them and getting them ready to play.”
Motivation and preparation will be key, as South Carolina has talent that belies its record.
“I’m sure they are a lot like us in that they went on the road last week, and didn’t play their best,” Stoops said. “I’m sure they are anxious to get back home and play a good game and get back to doing all the good things they did. I guarantee you they’re the best 1-3 team in the country, no doubt about that. They’re a talented group. They’ve got very good players.”
With Jake Bentley out indefinitely, a face unfamiliar to the Cats will be at quarterback. It’s highly touted true freshman Ryan Hilinski’s job for now.
“He gets rid of the football,” Stoops said. “He’s a rhythm guy. He likes to throw in rhythm and get there and disperse the football. He’s got a lot of good guys to throw it to. They have got some talented guys at wide receiver. He likes to get rid of it. He makes good throws. He’s made some extremely tough throws, and then he just looks good when he’s comfortable out there and throwing in rhythm. There has been times when they’ve looked really good.”
Most notably, the Gamecocks rolled up 31 first downs and 459 total yards in a loss to Alabama two weeks ago and will perform the same way against UK if given the opportunity. That’s why it’s incumbent on the Cats to return to who they are.
“You heard me say it a bunch and it’s well documented, but under extreme pressure, your habits will come straight to the surface,” Stoops said. “What are our habits and how are we practicing and how are we doing things throughout the week in our preparation. If we are disciplined in the way we do things, that’s how we will play.”
