As Kentucky hosted the number one Georgia Bulldogs in Lexington the expectations weren’t exactly at their highest. That wasn’t always the case as early in the season the Wildcats were 4-0 with a win over Florida for the second consecutive year. At that time Georgia and Kentucky looked like a marquee matchup worthy of marking on your calendar.
Unfortunately for the Wildcats things would go downhill suddenly as the season wore on. Losses to Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt derailed what looked to have the potential of being a magical season. There has been much discussion on what went wrong for Mark Stoops and his group this year. From an underwhelming offense to horrendous special team play due mostly to long snapping issues that have led to many field goal issues, much has gone wrong for this once-promising season.
With that comes the defending national champion Bulldogs making their way to Kroger Field. However, what had the make-up of another ugly loss turned out to be a competitive game. The offense struggled once again to do anything of note until later in the third quarter and long snapping still proved to be an issue in the fourth quarter. However, the Wildcat’s defense played a more than commendable game against what looks to be a favorite to win another national title in Georgia.
Outside of the defense, there were a few other bright spots for Kentucky in what turned out to be a closer game than many anticipated. Wide receiver Barion Brown had his breakout game against a first-round NFL draft pick in KeLee Ringo. In what has already been a very impressive debut season, the true freshman had ten catches for 145 yards and a touchdown. The offensive line also put together a strong showing compared to most of the season.
Kentucky wasn’t able to string together enough to put together the upset, however, was able to go toe to toe against the country’s ranked team. Now sitting at 6-5, the Wildcats await their yearly rivalry game against the Louisville Cardinals. After that, the bowl-eligible Wildcats will await to see what bowl game waits for them in the post-season.
Will today’s moral victories be enough to slow down on talks of staff turnover this off-season? Likely not, as Stoops will still more likely than not have some decisions to make over the coming weeks. However, the players put up a tremendous fight against a more-than-worthy opponent on this Saturday with more that can be accomplished to close out the season.
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.
