By Keith Taylor
Kentucky Today
Kentucky had the nation on upset alert following the first two quarters against No. 12 Alabama on Saturday.
The Wildcats led the Crimson Tide 17-13 at the break and appeared poised to pull a rare victory over Alabama for just the third time in school history.
The recipe had the makings of a similar outcome, considering the Wildcats last beat the Crimson Tide in Hal Mumme’s first year at the helm in 1997. Like Mumme, coach Will Stein also faced Alabama as Wildcats coach for the first time.
Despite making a statement in the first half, Kentucky couldn’t keep pace with Alabama in the final two quarters. The tide turned as the guests outscored the Wildcats 32-0 in the second half and rolled to a 45-17 victory in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams.
Stein was apologetic after encouraging the fans to show up and be loud in the conference opener.
“It’s the second game; it really sucks,” Stein said. “It hurts. It hurt for our team, number one. It hurt for our fans, number two; especially how they turned out and really showed up for our team. Our players are hurting.”
Before kickoff, the Wildcats did their best to intimidate the Tide, even bringing back former standouts Tim Couch and Craig Yeast, who led the Wildcats to a rare victory over the Crimson Tide 29 years ago. Couch and Yeast, along with Stein, helped lead the Wildcats onto the field.
Sparked by the return of Couch and Yeast and Stein’s energy, the Wildcats forced an Alabama turnover on a tipped pass that led to a Miquise Humphrey-Grace touchdown that served notice early that the hosts came to play.
Another score gave the hosts a 14-7 lead before Alabama booted two straight field goals and began chipping away at the lead. The second half was more touchdowns than field goals, leading to a runaway win for the Crimson Tide.
While Kentucky fed off its home crowd in the first half, Alabama simply stuck to its game plan.
“(It was) far from a perfect game,” Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said. “It wasn’t this crazy energy that we had to have. I felt like it was just getting locked in, getting refocused, and just knowing the game was going to be ours. We’ve just got to go out and execute.”
Feeding off the energy from a soldout crowd, Kentucky’s defense held Alabama to just 128 total yards, including five yards rushing in the first two quarters. However, the Crimson Tide ramped it up in the second half. Alabama got 215 of its 343 total yards and rushed for 150 yards to wear down the Wildcats’ defense.
The Wildcats tried to find a rhythm and even attempted a fake punt in its own territory to help find a spark in the third quarter, but turned the ball over on downs, which led to an Alabama touchdown.
“You play to win the game,” Stein said. “I know that’s the old Herm Edwards quote, I believe. But it’s true. You’ve got to be risky at times.”
Stein added the loss was simply a “shock to the system.”
“That’s not just players, that’s coaches, that’s everybody,” Stein said. “I know our guys will respond because they’ve done it this entire time that we’ve been here. This isn’t just conditional coaching. This is unconditional. We are going to show up (Sunday) and figure out what we need to do to improve.”
It doesn’t get any easier for Kentucky. The Wildcats take on No. 10 Texas A&M at College Station on Saturday in what will be Stein’s first road game as coach of the Wildcats. The Aggies defeated Arizona State 48-20 and former Wildcat quarterback Cutter Boley on Saturday.
“The good thing, the positive is, we are 1-1 on the season,” Stein said. “We are not 12 games in; this is the second game of the year. We’ve got a lot to improve on, which is good. The tape will tell us completely where we are at, and we’ve got an opportunity to get better this week and go into a hostile environment in College Station and go attack this week.”