Cats Hurting after Loss, but Focused on What’s Ahead
Mark Stoops was plainly upset sitting at the podium late Saturday.
Kentucky had just fallen in devastating, logic-defying fashion. The Wildcats took a tried and true path to potential victory, getting out to an early lead, dominating time of possession and the ground game against Tennessee.
Nevertheless, the final on the scoreboard at Kroger Field was unmistakable: Tennessee 17, Kentucky 13.
“This is extremely difficult loss for our team,” Stoops said. “I really appreciate our team’s effort and their attitude and their preparation and their fight. A very good football game. The two teams playing extremely hard. Very hungry for a victory and comes down to a goal-line stand.”
Kentucky was on the wrong end of that goal-line stand, with Lynn Bowden Jr. tackled on fourth-and-goal from the two-yard line with a little more than a minute to go.
“I tried to stretch it,” Bowden said. “They took my option read away. They attacked it and I tried to turn the corner and get in.”
Bowden once again guided a physical Kentucky offense that built a 13-0 lead, rushed for 302 yards and held the ball for more than 41 minutes of game time. On the other side of the ball, UK forced three-and-outs on four of Tennessee’s 10 drives and recovered a fumble on another.
It wasn’t enough.
“You come up a yard short and it’s very, very difficult, tough pill to swallow, but again I appreciate our team, I love their fight and their desire and their competitiveness to win,” Stoops said. “We all got to find a way to make up those yards and do a better job. Defensively I felt like we played extremely good the majority of the night. It comes down to some 50/50 balls.”
While UK’s defense will be working this week to reverse the outcome on those 50/50 balls, all options will be on the table for the Wildcat offense. UK was once again one-dimensional, passing for just 25 yards, but the Cats had every opportunity to win anyway.
“What is going to give our football team the best chance to win?” Eddie Gran said. “And that’s what we’ll discuss (Sunday). Lynn Bowden gave us a chance to win tonight. That’s a fact.”
More important than schemes and play-calling will be the way Kentucky responds as a team.
“I appreciate their effort and preparation and there’s going to be frustration and they got to control that, because it’s hard,” Stoops said. “These guys invest a lot. When you invest what we invest it’s going to hurt.
“So we got to handle that as best you can and try to keep the frustration to yourself and regroup and then go look at the film and go look at the things and the areas where we all can do things better. And that’s the only way can you handle it.”
The bottom line is Kentucky is 4-5 with three games left this season. That means three big wins and a bowl game potentially lay ahead, but none of that is guaranteed. The Cats have to make it happen.
“You just gotta stay together,” Bowden said. “Things like this can make or break a team. I think it’s going to make us.”
