LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — This was a step back for Kentucky football. This was a loss that makes another 9-3 season considerably more difficult.
Lose to Florida, even while spitting out an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter, and you can spin that one. Florida is a Top 15 team. Florida has speed and talent. Florida typically handles Kentucky, even if the Wildcats won in Gainesville last season.
But what happened to Kentucky against Mississippi State during a 28-15 defeat in Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Miss., on a steamy Saturday afternoon cannot be spun the way a loss to the Gators can be spun.
"I'm very disappointed in the way we started, especially in the first half," UK coach Mark Stoops said. "They beat us. They beat us in all phases ... we weren't up for the challenge."
A season after the Wildcats (2-2) handled the Bulldogs by three touchdowns, Kentucky found itself behind the home team 21-3 before anybody had time to be annoyed by the clanging cowbells. The offense turned it over. The defense wobbled against an unknown quarterback.
Yes, they rallied, cutting the Bulldogs' lead to 21-13.
Yes, they stopped the State offense through most of the second half. Yes, they finally got into the end zone in the third quarter and then missed a make-able field goal in the fourth quarter.
Yes, the officials did not call a roughing the kicker penalty they could have called on that missed field goal.
Yes, quarterback Sawyer Smith played through an injured right shoulder. It showed. Smith completed only 15 of 41 passes (36.6 percent) for 232 yards without a touchdown. Smith was injured near the end of the second quarter. Stoops said his quarterback had an X-ray at halftime before he played the final two quarters.
"He's banged up," Stoops said. "He's got (an injured) shoulder. He's got a wrist."
But in the end, Mississippi State was better, even while using a back-up true freshman at quarterback. This was a game when the Wildcats looked like they missed Terry Wilson at quarterback (as well as Benny Snell at running back, C.J. Conrad at tight end and all the other toys offensive coordinator Eddie Gran had last season). Even Stoops said his team looked like a team that did not understand the energy and edge that is required to win on the road.
Now the Wildcats cannot make it three consecutive losses to teams they defeated last season when they visit South Carolina next Saturday, not if they to maintain any of the momentum the program created last season.
A six-point underdog, Kentucky lost by 15. What happened? This happened:
A Smith pass intercepted for a 53-yard State touchdown on the Wildcats’ fourth offensive snap -- after the Wildcats surged for 23 yards on their first three snaps.
"Getting that interception really hurt us," Stoops said. "A pick six in an environment like this gives them a chance to explode."
A pass to Ahmad Wagner in the end zone that somehow went from touchdown to incompletion as it fluttered to the turf.
A deep pass to a streaking Lynn Bowden Jr. that also slipped to the ground after falling off Bowden’s hand. Bowden dropped several other balls that he normally catches.
An alarming inability to stop or even contain Shrader, a true freshman quarterback who had completed only 48 percent of the 23 throws he had made in his first two college games. They let the rookie pass for 180 yards and run for another 125. They let him look like he was Dak Prescott.
About the only thing Mark Stoops' team got right in the first half was not playing linebacker Kash Daniel for the entire first quarter and first series in the second quarter, an apparent punishment for the twist Daniel applied to the ankle of Florida quarterback Kyle Trask in a pile at Kroger Field Sept. 14.
Stoops said it was his decision not to start Daniel -- and to strip him of his captain's status for the game.
"We try to respect the game," Stoops said. "Our players are going to respect the game and respect people."
The second half was better, considerably better. But it wasn't good enough to overcome a missed field goal and more dropped passes. The Wildcats converted only one of 12 third down plays, going 0-for-5 in the fourth quarter.
They were out-gained 421 to 386. They made it to the red zone four times -- and only squeezed 10 of a possible 28 points from those trips.
And then, when the Wildcats’ defense was primed to deliver its first three-and-out performance of the game, they misplayed a third-and-four from the State 31-yard line late in the fourth quarter and Shrader ran 49 yards around the left end.
Ball game.
OK, it officially became ball game when State halftime Kylin Hill scored his third touchdown from the 2-yard-line with 1:39 to play.
"You could see a great player with a great desire to make some tough runs," Stoops said. "He was a grown man out there."
So a year after the Wildcats defeated Florida and Mississippi State by a combined 32 points, they lost to those two teams by a combined 23 points.
That's a 55-point swing.
That’s a trend that needs to end next Saturday in Columbia, when the Wildcats visit South Carolina. Kentucky has won five straight against the Gamecocks, including two in a row on the road.
This is not a vintage South Carolina team. The Gamecocks lost their season opener against rebuilding North Carolina and slipped to 1-3 as they lost at Missouri, 34-14, Saturday. Folks are howling about Will Muschamp, the Gamecocks' coach.
It’s certainly a winnable game — and one the Wildcats need to win.
"We've got to play better," Stoops said. "We need to regroup."
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