Kentucky traveled down to Knoxville, however, was unable to get the job done against the Volunteers. Despite their best efforts, the Wildcats were unable to slow down Henden Hooker and the Tennessee offense. Now sitting at 5-3 the question is, where does Kentucky go from here.
This loss more than likely puts Kentucky out of the running in the SEC east with what now looks to be a two-team race between the Volunteers and the Bulldogs of Georgia. Of course, this does not mean that Kentucky can’t still finish with a good season. However, the program may not be able to break the new ground they had their hopes on breaking this season.
Right now, the Wildcats still are in a good position to have another nine-to-ten-win season which is more than respectable. That being said, this team had the looks of a squad that could quite possibly take the next step and truly challenge Georgia for the east division coming in to the season. Never the less, if Kentucky can win all the games they are “supposed” to, then a very good season is still there for the taking.
Over the next two weeks Kentucky faces Missouri and Vanderbilt with both games being at home. If the Wildcats can take care of business as they will be favored to, they will face the Georgia with a 7-3 record. This will be their last opportunity of this season to break down a new wall in the Mark Stoops era by beating the Bulldogs.
This of course will be no easy task as the defending national champs are undefeated at the time of this writing. That being said, that is the one win that could change this season from being another ‘good’ one to once again being special. After that, Kentucky will have a match-up against Louisville to close out the regular season.
One testament to what Stoops has built in Lexington is the fact that a team can win somewhere between seven-to-ten wins and still be somewhat of a letdown. When was the last time that even a Citrus Bowl appearance would feel like it’s not enough for the big blue nation. If anything, Stoops and his coaching staff can hang their hats on the fact that the bar has certainly been raised on what this program should be able to accomplish.
That may not bring much solace to a fan base coming off a hard loss against a bitter rival. That being said, there is still a lot of work to do for this football program this season. A very good football season is still there for the taking. There are still other questions to answer outside of the team’s final record as well.
How will this offensive line continue to develop throughput the rest of the season as it continues to transition from the old power gap scheme the Wildcats ran for years to a more athletic outside zone scheme? How will the many true freshman that Kentucky has boasted this year continue to progress as the season winds down? There are still many questions left to answer for Mark Stoops and his squad.
Of course, there are no easy wins in the SEC and Louisville could easily provide a challenge in their own right. There is still plenty for Kentucky to play for as the season starts winding down. With that, after a loss like this one against Tennessee, the Wildcats must get up, dust themselves off and move on to next week because there is still plenty left to accomplish in 2022.
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.
