LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Over the years, the University of Kentucky football program has developed what seems like a kind of gridiron circadian rhythm. The Wildcats like to ease into the season. Don’t bother them until they’ve had a cup of coffee and a couple of cupcakes.
It has taken some doing to enable this rhythm. The program muscled its way out of playing Louisville in its season-openers, until the conferences of the two schools finished the job.
Kentucky has scrupulously avoided any kind of significant season-opening challenge since that change was made, and except for years in which the SEC has inserted a game-two league opponent into its schedule, has generally gone light in both opening games.
That, of course, is not unusual in college football. But for Kentucky, it has led to a trend. With the exception of UK’s exceptional 2018 team (which won its opener against Central Michigan despite four fumbles and two interceptions before beating Florida in Gainesville), the opening couplet of Wildcat seasons is a march of mediocrity.
They led Toledo by only a touchdown after three quarters in last season’s opener, before pulling away, then handled Eastern Michigan. In 2017, they beat Southern Miss 24-17, but then sleep-walked through a 27-16 win over Eastern Kentucky. In 2016, they dropped the opener to Southern Miss 44-35, before being drubbed at No. 20 Florida. In 2015, there was a closer-than expected 40-33 win over Louisiana-Lafayette.
Kentucky rolled past Tennessee-Martin and Ohio in 2014 but in 2013 suffered a season-opening loss to WKU.
Maybe you don’t see it as a trend, but it’s troubling to think it may be a mentality, that you ease on into things. In college football more than anywhere else, every game counts. At Kentucky, it’s pretty clear that in recent years the opening game has often been treated – by players, at least – as an exhibition game.
Which brings us at long last to the 2020 season.
The Wildcats haven’t played poorly in losses on the road to a Top 10 (at the time) Auburn team and a good Ole Miss team at home.
But they also haven’t played cleanly. In fact, one could make the case that they’ve played the two opening games that they usually play – rusty, not-quite-sharp, turnover prone. If you do that, you’re subject to the kind of bad luck the Wildcats have encountered, and put yourself in position to be hurt by the kind of bad calls they seem to (inevitably) experience in SEC play.
Kentucky didn’t have any choice in the matter this season when it came to scheduling. It originally was set to face Eastern Michigan in its opener on Sept. 5. At worst, it would’ve been 1-1 with the same level of play right now, given that it was to travel to Florida in Week 2 of its original schedule. And it would be preparing for another likely win, at home against Kent State.
Instead, it is 0-2 with little time to catch its breath against an all-SEC slate, especially with Mississippi State’s pass-happy attack coming to Lexington this weekend.
The rest of the season might prove insightful, however, as far as Kentucky’s sluggish starts are concerned. If the Wildcats managed to improve despite those two losses, you could see Mark Stoops’ talented team win some games that it wasn’t expected to win in the coming weeks.
If it manages that, it makes a good case for Kentucky working in some bigger-name opponents in the season-opening slots from time to time. It might lose some games, but perhaps it could improve its team for the SEC challenges to come.
I’ve long argued that instead of scheduling for bowl games, Kentucky would do well to schedule for SEC advancement. And cupcakes — at least an exclusive diet of them — don’t help that cause. On the other hand, a big-time opener can mean a more productive preseason, which could pay dividends all season. Maybe not every season but once in a while. It would carry the added bonus of conveying to players that the program has confidence in them to handle a big-time early challenge, rather than just playing it safe for bowl eligibility.
At the very least, Kentucky’s circadian rhythm hasn’t helped it when a COVID-19 altered schedule cut the fat out of its early-season diet this year.
A few mistakes were all it took to let Auburn get away. And Kentucky self-inflicted enough damage to lose to an Ole Miss team it was favored to beat.
“It was a miserable defeat and feeling,” Stoops said. “I can point to maybe three plays in that game that if we make, we win. But every team can say that. ... It’s a matter of getting it done. We’ve got to get back to work. Every week, whether you win or lose, you’ve got to hit that reset button.”
One of these days, Kentucky needs to get its “start” button issues ironed out. That could go a long way toward getting where it wants to go in the SEC.
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