It’s a loss that still lingers.
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said his feelings haven’t changed since his team’s 44-35 setback to Southern Mississippi in the season-opener for both teams Saturday at Commonwealth Stadium.
“We feel the same way today as we felt after the game,” Stoops said Monday. “It hurts just as bad.”
This week, Stoops hopes to avoid a 0-2 start for the first time in his tenure as coach of the Wildcats at Florida in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams Saturday in Gainesville. Stoops said there’s no pressure on getting a rare victory over the Gators.
“I don’t every want to put a ‘make or break’ on one game because say we win it, it doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “You know that. You all have written about that plenty, about starting good and not finishing. What good does that do? It’s a 12-game season.”
Stoops added “there were a lot of good things” to rave about after evaluating the game film following the loss to the Eagles. Stoops liked the way his team’s offense performed, especially in the first half. For just the eighth- time in school history, the Wildcats scored 21 points in the first quarter and totaled 35 in the first two halves.
“We are a better football team offensively, we played very well,” Stoops said.
Even though Kentucky collected 443 yards of offense against the Eagles, including 313 yards through the air, the Wildcats struggled on third down, converting just three on nine attempts. Kentucky also had two fumbles and a costly interception to open the second half, resulting in the team’s downfall in the final two quarters.
“We gotta make some third-down plays and you can’t have the turnover,” he said. “With the fumble in the second half and then the interception was really the only play that really stood out to me that Drew (Barker) had a bad play. That’s just not a good throw, not a good decision. That’s not how he will play. That’s not how he’s coached. And that was the only play he made a really bad decision and a bad choice and a bad throw. And that didn’t’ help our case at that point, either. That’s a bit of hitting the panic button right there and just throwing it up. We won’t do that.”
Stoops also wasn’t happy with his team’s time of possession in the second half. The Wildcats had the ball for just 7:28 during the final two quarters and converted just two first downs.
“Offensively we moved it at will in the first half,” he said. “In the second half we didn’t have enough possessions and that comes by not getting off the field defensively and winning some third downs. It also comes with converting.”
Stoops added the Wildcats failed to execute during critical situations.
“We’ve gotta execute,” the Kentucky coach said. “And the thing that we have to do, have to get coached is when things go wrong, we have to go back and execute.”
While Kentucky’s offensive unit failed to piece together a complete game in the opener, Stoops also was disappointed in his team’s defensive performance in the second half. Kentucky’s secondary picked off three passes in the first two quarters, but did little else following halftime.
“There’s no question we need to do better,” he said. “Again, look at what we did in the first half, what we’re capable of — the big plays, the pressure, the interceptions, the whole deal. And then, but also, you get worn down.”
To avoid future instances of fatigue, Stoops said the Wildcats have to develop more depth on defense.
“We had 10 possessions of under three plays and so your defense is going to be on the field,” Stoops said. “And we just gotta find a way to respond. We got to do a better job of mixing our depth and getting some guys in there because that’s a lot of possessions and they did a really good job of keeping us off balance.”
Scouting Florida
The Gators own a 29-game winning streak against the Wildcats, while Kentucky hasn’t defeated Florida in Gainesville since 1979.
Florida opened the season with a 24-7 rout of UMass over the weekend to notch its 27th consecutive victory to open the season. The Gators limited the Minutemen to just 46 yards rushing and collected four sacks.
Despite the recent lack of success against the Gators, the Wildcats came close to ending the long losing streak during the past two years. Kentucky has lost the last two games by a combined margin of 11 points, including a 14-9 setback last season in Lexington.
“We know it’s a real challenge,” Stoops said. “I think we know we have to play very well or we will not have a shot. They deserve the respect that they get, but our players also know it’s about us and what we do and if we go execute and play the very best we can then we’ll have an opportunity, a great opportunity. And if we don’t, we’ll have no chance.”
Gametracker: Kentucky at Florida, Saturday, 3:30 p.m. TV/Radio: CBS Channel 27, 98.1 FM WBUL.
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