By Keith Taylor
Special to NKyTribune
Mark Stoops has experienced the good and bad of Kentucky’s series against Vanderbilt during his four-year tenure as coach of the Wildcats.
His first Southeastern Conference victory was a 17-7 win over the Commodores in Lexington two years ago, while his most frustrating setback was a 21-17 loss to Vandy last season in Nashville, a setback that cost the Wildcats a break-even season and possibly a bowl bid.
Not known for dwelling on past performances, Stoops hasn’t forgotten about last year’s setback to the Commodores. It’s a loss that still lingers.
“I never single (any game out), but does last year’s Vanderbilt game hurt? Absolutely,” Stoops said. “It bothers me and will probably bother me for the rest of my life.”
Although the four-point loss still lingers in his memory bank, Stoops isn’t dwelling on his past successes or failures against the Commodores and knows Saturday’s contest is a chance for the Wildcats to get back to .500 before the team’s yearly bye week.
“This is a total new year,” Stoops said.
The Wildcats (2-3, 1-2 Southeastern Conference) are coming off a 34-6 loss to top-ranked Alabama, a performance that gave Stoops and his staff some optimism for the next three games, a stretch that will make or break Kentucky’s postseason chances.
“Our guys competed,” Stoops said. “I thought we did the right things, were in the right position, guys were executing for the most part. There was a drive or two that are not okay and we need to get some things fixed and play with greater urgency, but I thought overall we had guys in the right position, guys were straining to make plays. We weren’t just blowing assignment because bad things were happening. We got lined up and made them beat us. We didn’t beat ourselves. We got some stops and had some chances.”
Stoops said a big key against the Commodores will be eliminating turnovers on offense. The Wildcats rank last in the league in turnover margin at minus 7, while the Commodores (2-3, 0-2) are plus 3 in that category.
“The big determining factor will be turnovers,” Stoops said. “Vandy has done a nice job with that. They’re giving up yards but have done a nice job with turnovers. They’re ahead in turnover ratio and we’re last in the league at negative-seven. We stress it and coach it. If you turn it over and not play good defense that’s a recipe to get beat by anyone.”
Stoops said eliminating miscues starts with quarterback Stephen Johnson, who had three fumbles, including two lost in last week’s setback to the Crimson Tide. The first fumble by Johnson resulted in a 55-yard defensive touchdown for Alabama. Another miscue by Johnson took away a scoring opportunity.
“(The) big piece of it (is) with Stephen,” Stoops said. “He has to know who we’re playing and where we are on the field. That was pretty clear (the second fumble) was not OK because we were in field goal range right there. Then as a play caller, you try to trust your quarterback that he’ll throw it away or run it but you know only get so many opportunities to try and score but it backfired on us there.”
Johnson, who will make his third start of the season against the Commodores, plans to put an emphasis on eliminating fumbles in practice this week. Johnson said he was “just trying to make something happen” in the pocket against the Crimson Tide last week.
“That was one thing that I didn’t obviously focus on (last) week,” Johnson said. “I need to get better at that this week.”
Gametracker: Vandy at Kentucky, 4 p.m., Saturday. TV/Radio: SEC Network, 98.1 FM WKYN
Keith Taylor is a senior sports writer for KyForward, where he primarily covers University of Kentucky sports. Reach him at keith.taylor@kyforward.com or @keithtaylor21 on Twitter