LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- It has been eight years since Southern Miss came into Lexington and handed the Kentucky football team a 44-35 loss in its season opener.
It was the fourth season for Mark Stoops as Wildcats coach and the second to begin with a loss to a Group of 5 opponent. The program has come a long way since then, but, on that day in 2016, a great many questioned its direction.
And Stoops remembers it like it was yesterday.
"They took care of us," Stoops said. "There were some lessons in that game that I carry with me. You've heard me talk about scars, calls and plays and things that happened. I remember exactly what happened at the end of that half. I remember exactly the call we made. I remember exactly the mistakes I made. You're thinking they're running out the clock. I let a call go. I should have called timeout and regrouped. That's on me. That was a long time ago, but I don't forget."
Kentucky would gather itself after an 0-2 start and wind up with a record of 7-6, the first winning record in Stoops' head-coaching tenure and the first trip to a bowl game.
It wound up being the first big step toward where Kentucky football has come.
A good many wins and bowl trips have followed in the wake of that season, and for the Kentucky players who will take the field at 7:30 p.m. Saturday to open the season against Southern Miss, that game is ancient history. Heck, games two seasons ago are ancient history. But Stoops uses the game anyway, as a reminder to take care of business.
Breakout Expectations
It has been an interesting preseason for Kentucky. The Wildcats are no strangers to expected breakout seasons. There has been a good bit of expectation for a while surrounding Stoops' teams. This year, there has been less, at least around the SEC and outside of Lexington. The Wildcats are picked to finish 11th in the expanded SEC. They were the No. 40 vote-getter in the AP preseason Top 25.
Yet in Lexington, and in the UK football complex, a breakout season is expected.
The Wildcats return the core of a talented defense led by All-American Deone Walker. They have rebuilt the offense but do have some key playmakers back (receivers Barion Brown and Dane Key among them) and have some significant transfer portal additions (Georgia QB Brock Vandergriff at the head of that list).
Kentucky defensive lineman Deone Walker, 6-6 and 350 pounds, towers over the Florida linemen during a game on Sept. 30, 2023.
When you're a Kentucky football, every season is a "prove it" proposition — but this year more than most recently, it seems.
South Carolina comes to Lexington in Week 2. Top-ranked Georgia comes in Week 3. The schedule is difficult fast. Season tickets have nearly sold out.
"We have eight home games and we want to go deliver," Stoops said. "You have heard me say that many times. I feel a deep obligation to put a team out there that (fans) are proud of. They are excited about it and want to come watch us. That is a good first step. Now we have to go play well and we want to do that, it is important to us. To go out there and coaches coach and players play and do the very best we can. We are excited about it, but we can't get too far ahead of ourselves. That is the big thing. Everyone wants to talk about the schedule, let's go worry about Southern Miss."
One thing likely easing Stoops' mind in a game where the Wildcats are favored by 28.5 is the presence of a deep and experienced defensive line. For a team with an offense that has had some preseason injuries, the defense could take some of the pressure off. It starts in the trenches.
"That's a deep group with Tre'vonn (Rybka) and Ox (Octavious Oxendine) and Deone (Walker) and all of them have played very well," Stoops said. "Kahlil (Sanders) is a guy we have a ton of confidence in. Keeshawn (Silver) has played very well. We have to get a guy like Kendrick Gilbert to continue to grow and continue to get better, bigger, stronger and be able to handle the SEC reps that are coming down the stretch. I think it's always a work in progress developing guys and you've heard us talk about it before, we have a unit on defense where there is a ton of experience and then we have some youngsters we have to bring along."
Offensive Questions
Offensively, longtime Georgia backup Vandagriff gets his chance to lead an SEC roster, though it's an offense with its fourth coordinator in four seasons. In today's transitory game of college football, however, that may not matter too much.
The big thing for Vandagriff, according to Stoops, is not pressing. There's no need to try to do too much. Just run the offense. Don't get in a hurry. He's hoping that message has taken hold, and not just with his quarterback.
"I think a big thing that we talk a lot about is making the routine, routine," Stoops said. "With him, you just continue to operate smoothly, continue to make good decisions, and continue to make the simple look simple, and the routine look routine. If a guy is open, hit him. Catch and run. Protect the football. Do the basics. If we continue to do a lot of little things, big things will happen. I think that is an important message with our entire team early because I mentioned it before, you guys have listened to me for 12 years, and for 12 years I've probably talked about this leading into it – guys want to do too much, too early. They immediately want the score to be whatever. They immediately want to have their production. They immediately want it all to happen right now. Why? Because they've worked very hard. They've lifted weights, they've run all summer, they've done these things, they've had all these practices, so they all want it all right now. And that's not going to happen unless they fall back on the things that they were taught and do the little things. If you continue to pile on, and do the little things right, you make routine look routine, and big things will eventually happen. That's hard to preach because guys want it all very quickly."
Key and Brown have worked with Will Levis, then Devin Leary and now Vandagriff. There's been Liam Coen and Rich Scangarello and now Bush Hamdan.
Vandagriff has approached the work like you'd expect of a veteran. He has put in time with his receivers and offensive line. The chemistry is good. The results are to be determined.
"I think Brock is certainly a guy that's in there all the time, always working at it," Stoops said. "If you look at the way we do things now, the turnover of roster I don't think maybe it's as big of a situation as it was five years ago."
Kentucky will be without one impact offensive player – Ohio State transfer running back Chip Trayanum, who broke his hand earlier this month and continues to recover. In his place, Demi Sumo-Karngbaye is listed as the starter on the Week 1 depth chart, ahead of Jason Patterson and Jamarion Wilcox. But all three will play.
"Southern Miss is a team that you saw very many signs and flashes, beaten some good teams last year and they have a lot of newcomers," Stoops said. "Like most teams when we look at the transfer portal, look at the change they have with their OC and DC, and I want to say probably as many as 10 impact offensive transfers, you don't know exactly what you're going to get so you have to be prepared for quite a few things heading into the opener. We've done that, we worked on things throughout camp, so we just have to handle things in stride. Nothing ever goes as smooth as you want it to, we have to be able to adapt, make adjustments, and nobody panic here in game one. Make the adjustments throughout the game and go execute and play good football."
And make sure history doesn't repeat itself.
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