Once again, Kentucky comes up on the wrong end of the scoreboard against South Carolina on Saturday night. After losing a heartbreaker to Ole Miss last week, losing to the Gamecocks maybe an even harder pill to swallow. Granted, Shane Beamer’s squad now has a 4-2 record, however, they are a team with an average defense as well as a shaky at best quarterback, respectfully. So, what exactly was the blueprint for South Carolina to come out with a win over the Wildcats?
It started with a mishap on Kentucky’s first play of the game from scrimmage. Rich Scangarello drew up a reverse intended for Barion Brown that turned into a fumble that would in turn go on to lead to touchdown for South Carolina. Kentucky would continue to tie the game; however, that opening play was just the jolt that the Gamecocks needed to carry them through this game.
Now, make no mistake, Shane Beamer has a few playmakers on offense and all credit to them. That being said, the Wildcats defense was able to keep them in check throughout the first half of this game. It was later in the third quarter that South Carolina was able jump back ahead on the scoreboard. After that the Gamecocks were able to score again and Kentucky was never able to answer. That inability to answer was truly the key to this loss for Mark Stoops and his squad.
Try as he did, Kaiya Sheron simply wasn’t enough to propel the Wildcat offense to the level it needed to be in order to come back from a deficit. However, if you read this column regularly, you know I like to keep things in their proper context. So, with that being said, let’s put things into that context. Sheron is a red-shirt freshman in his first college start, in an SEC game. For his first real game action, the Somerset native showed a few nice things he can build on.
However, this is what brings me to my main point; you cannot underestimate the importance of Will Levis. The Wildcats senior quarterback of not only the heart and soul of this offense, but this team as a whole. For years Kentucky has been known as an offense built around the run, and yes, the ground game is certainly still an important cog in this engine, especially with Chris Rodriguez.
However, make no mistake about it, this offense is built around Levis and it lives and dies with him.
Chris Rodriguez had 126 yards on 22 carries on the Gamecocks defense for an impressive average of 5.7 yards per carry, yet it still wasn’t enough. Up until the last few fleeting minutes of the game any mid-level, let alone vertical passing game was non-existent. The play-calling was simply handcuffed in what could be executed without Levis in the game. The passing game was relegated to quick screens and dink-n-dunk offenseSheron was simply not able to run the offense at the level Will Levis does, nor should he have been expected to. Once again, the first–time starter did show some nice things, however, being expected to replace a future NFL starter is just too much to ask, especially at this point of his young career. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, however, it’s not hard to imagine that Levis would put up more than seven points in this game (not counting points in ‘garbage time’ against soft coverage).
Levis took plenty of heat for the loss against Ole Miss, especially on social media. Maybe this game was an eye-opener of just how important he is to the success of this team. Granted, there were other factors to this loss as well, like some special team’s mishaps, and a wore down defense in the second half due to the offenses inability to sustain drives. However, there is a strong possibility that not having a quarterback of the caliber of Will Levis makes a huge difference in the outcome of this game.
Of course, this is just speculation at this point. However, it can certainly be argued that the big blue nation missed their playmaking signal-caller on this particular Saturday night. The good news is Levis is expected to return next week against Mississippi State and with the Bulldogs and Tennessee looming on the horizon of the schedule, he will be needed.
Larry Spicer will produce a weekly column covering both the University of Kentucky Basketball and Football programs for the L4 Security 13th Region Media Network. He is a resident of Corbin, and is married with two daughters. He is a communications major at Eastern Kentucky University and has covered football from the NFL to College since 2017.
