LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- For a little while, I've been trying to figure out a way to say this that didn't sound dismissive or negative. Then Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops gave me an assist.
My premise for a while has been that it's time for Kentucky football to grow up. It's not a criticism. It's not a derogatory statement about where the program is. It's just a fact. The program has reached a level of sustained competitive success that it has rarely known in the Southeastern Conference. But the time has come to leave base camp and take another step. At some point, you put away the incubator.
There are a few things involved in that. But as I wrestled with the right way to write it, Stoops himself took on the subject in response to a question at his Monday news conference.
The specific topic was his team's struggles when it gets behind the chains. And he allowed that the Wildcats could run the ball against a lot of teams, maybe stay on a better offensive schedule and do a little better. But then he said something interesting.
"We want to grow as a program," Stoops said. "You've heard me talk about it. We've discussed this. We could sit there and second-guess ourselves and look at the last time we took the field and say, 'Hey you know. We could sit there and run the ball maybe 20 more times and have a better chance to win the game.' But are we really growing as an organization, are we really winning and becoming the team that we want to become?"
Forgive the mention of a rival program, but I remember a game in Charlie Strong's first season at Louisville. He went for it on fourth-and-1 in the fourth quarter and came up short in a game against Cincinnati, and the Bearcats went on to win by a touchdown. After the game, he allowed that kicking a field goal might've led to a better outcome, then said, "But we've got to be able to get that one yard. If we can't do that, we're not going to be who we want to be."
Two years later, Louisville won the Sugar Bowl.
Now, there was a lot more to it than being able to get a yard on fourth down. But the point is this – sometimes as a coach, you need to risk a setback if you're going to demand more.
For Kentucky, part of growing up is being able to play behind the sticks. It is receivers stepping up and playing to their potential. It's the passing game making its share of big plays under pressure. It's being able to throw the ball even when the guys on the other side know you have to throw the ball.
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops on the sideline in a win over Eastern Kentucky.
For a Kentucky program that is consistently good defensively, getting serious about offense is a significant step, but not a huge leap from where it has been. Bringing Liam Coen back as offensive coordinator was supposed to help make that step a reality. But failures in execution, dropped passes, and some offensive line injuries have stalled that process.
More than that, however, Kentucky needs to be far more offensively efficient. It need not speed itself up uncomfortably or try to do things it can't, it just needs to do what it can do more efficiently and consistently.
With a high-powered Tennessee team visiting on Saturday at 7:30 p.m., it's time to get that process jump-started. The Vols are the exact opposite of Kentucky. Tennessee is tempo. It has run 502 plays in 7 games. Kentucky is plodding. It has run 383 plays in 7 games.
"Their tempo creates problems, but I think they're very balanced," Stoops said of Tennessee. "You know you've heard me talk about it a lot and as a defensive coach, defending somebody that is, they're about exactly 50/50 right now -- 217 (yards per game rushing) to 220 (yards per game passing). It's about as balanced as you can get and they have a very efficient offense that's hard to defend. I think the way they spread you out, the tempo that they use, the schemes that they use, very talented quarterback in Joe Milton with a ton of experience. He's been around a long time, senior, and I think they have dynamic running backs along with always having explosive receivers, so very good team."
How do you combat that? Alabama showed the way. You fight offense with offense. The Tide rolled over Tennessee 27-0 in the second half after trailing 20-7 at the half. Kentucky has yet to show that gear consistently. The Wildcats' goal will be to play its own game and avoid the track meet. A year ago, they couldn't do that, fell behind early and couldn't recover.
"It's almost impossible to simulate them in practice, that's for sure," Stoops said. "You could run two units at them, as far as two scout teams. You could practice against our offense, that can be efficient just being, playing good football. It's not the same offense but as far as us getting our cleats in the ground, getting calls, communicating, getting lined up, getting set. I think that you know that was a piece of it a year ago, where we're playing certain downs very well, certain plays very well and the tempo stresses some kids mentally and just you can't have that. You can't have any mental breakdowns, that's for sure. It's hard enough and they put enough stress on you and make enough one-on-one catches that you can't have your own mental breakdowns."
At some point, though, Kentucky itself needs to be the team applying the pressure, the one causing mental stress. It has done that in the past with defense, and occasionally offensively. It's time to do that more consistently.
Which brings us back to the main point. The program needs to grow up. How does it do that? It gets out of its comfort zone of playing three easy non-conference games to start the season. It demands more, sooner from players in the offseason. It risks getting "behind the chains" with an early loss for the chance to be better faster, and perhaps more competitive later on. There is nothing about future non-conference opponents Toledo, Eastern Michigan, Tennessee Tech, Akron, Youngstown State, South Alabama, Murray State, Ball State and Eastern Illinois that creates offseason urgency for this program.
Like second- or third-and long, playing somebody better in the early season might be uncomfortable. But succeeding in uncomfortable situations is what growing is all about.
The good news for Kentucky is that it isn't far away. It's closer than it has ever been. Of course, the job in the SEC may be harder than it ever has been, too. And it's getting harder, with conference expansion.
The other good news for Kentucky is that each week presents another chance. Playing at home in front of a sellout crowd, after a second straight disappointing loss that prompted a players-only meeting during a bye week last week, the Wildcats have been hitting the reset button pretty hard.
On Saturday, we'll see if there are signs of growth.
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