By Keith Taylor
Special to NKyTribune
When Mark Stoops arrived at Kentucky nearly five years ago, his first order of business was to upgrade recruiting and get the Wildcats back to the postseason.
As he promised, Stoops has improved Kentucky’s roster and produced a senior class that helped lead the Wildcats to their first bowl appearance in six years Saturday. Although Kentucky suffered a 33-18 loss to Georgia Tech in the TaxSlayer Bowl, Stoops and his staff have plenty of optimism as the Kentucky coach looks ahead to his fifth season as coach of the Wildcats.
“We’re extremely disappointed with the way we finished in losing this game, but I’m very proud of them,” Stoops said. “That’s a great group to coach. There’s a lot to build on. I’m very excited about the future.”
Two years prior to his arrival, Kentucky made an unprecedented five straight bowl appearances, compiling a 3-2 mark in those contests, including victories over Clemson and Florida State in the Music City Bowl. The Tigers and Seminoles returned to national prominence, while the Wildcats have been in a rebuilding mode since their last postseason appearance six years ago in Birmingham.
Despite the five bowl appearances during the past decade, the Wildcats fell behind early against the Yellowjackets and never caught gained traction despite a late flurry in the fourth quarter.
A Stephen Johnson fumble on Kentucky’s first series spotted Georgia Tech a touchdown, while a bad sequence to end the first half that began with a failed 4-and-1 at the goal line resulted in 10 unanswered points by the Yellowjackets.
“I thought the fourth downs were very critical early,” Stoops said. “We missed some short-yardage opportunities that we’ve been very good at this season. That was critical. They converted a fourth down. We didn’t. Those are critical plays.”
Looking back on the fourth-down opportunity before the half, Stoops had no regrets trying to get the touchdown instead of a possible field goal.
“I don’t regret going for it on fourth-and-one driving because I know we needed some points,” Stoops said. “We could have always done some different things, got a bigger set, taken our time, done that.”
Georgia Tech, known for its triple-option scheme, racked up 266 rushing yards against the Wildcats and limited Kentucky to just 324 total yards, limiting Wildcat rushers to just 149 yards on the ground. Boom Williams and Benny Snell combined for just 69 yards. Kentucky’s longest rush was a 25-yard run by senior JoJo Kemp in the second half.
Coming off a career-outing in Kentucky’s regular-season finale against rival Louisville, Wildcats quarterback Stephen Johnson threw for 175 yards and rushed for 49 more. Johnson was sacked twice and his fumble in the first quarter put Kentucky in a proverbial hole early in the contest.
“He was under a lot of pressure,” Stoops said. “We were disappointed. We had some shots. We didn’t get good protection, we really didn’t. We didn’t protect well enough to get the ball down the field. With any quarterback, if you’re affecting the quarterback with pressure, mixing up looks… They did a nice job. They played well. We needed to protect better. We were just off on shots and plays with pressures and coverages.”
Kentucky managed a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter and made things interesting until Georgia Tech punched in a late score to to put the game away. Stoops liked the way his team rallied despite the odds and said the contest will serve as a building block for his program in moving forward.
“I think we learned a great deal from this experience,” he said. “It’s definitely a lot to build on. Our players got a good taste of the post-season, not only with being in the post-season, but being in this bowl game that I have great respect for. The history of this bowl, the people that played in it, it’s significant. I’m very proud to get here. I’m proud of this team. I think as we get a taste for this, we will want more. They know that we can win, we’re capable of it. We can play with anybody we line up with. We just got to get better and build on it. I’m sure we will.”
Looking back on his team’s 7-6 season, Stoops said his team’s toughness is a trait that stands out. Kentucky lost its first two games of the regular-season but won seven of the last 10 games to gain a berth in the postseason.
“I don’t know if there’s any one thing except the resiliency of our team,” he said. “If you have listened to me in the off-season, as we were talking about building this program, it went back to me talking about capacity, just our players maturing, being mentally tougher, being physically tougher, being able to be in the weight room longer, being able to have our off-season program be more stringent, more difficult, longer and harder. They handled that. Two-a-days longer and tougher. That’s what we’re going to continue to do. We’re going to continue to push forward. We have to.”
Williams to enter NFL Draft
Following the contest, Williams announced his plans to enter the NFL Draft in May. Williams made the decision to leave the program Friday night.
“There were a lot of things that played into that (decision),” Williams said. “Me and my family talked last night, just finalized the decision last night and told Coach Stoops after the game. It wasn’t an easy decision; it was very tough. I was stuck in a hard place in whether I wanted to come back or whether I wanted to leave. At the end of the day, we came to the decision to leave for the NFL.”
Williams, from Monroe, Ga., finishes his collegiate career with 2,511 rushing yards, which ranks seventh on the school’s career rushing list. He had an explosive final season in leading the Cats with 1,170 rushing yards, making him just the ninth player in school history to surpass 1,000 yards in a season.
Stoops was involved in the decision-making process and said Williams has a bright future ahead of him in the NFL.
“Boom and I had several discussions, and met with his family, and I gave them the information I had received from the NFL,” head coach Mark Stoops said. “He and his family decided the best time was now and he notified me after my press conference. I appreciate all of Boom’s efforts for this program and what he’s meant to this team, the great player that he is. I wish him nothing but success in the future. He’ll always be part of the Wildcat family.”
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