OXFORD, Miss. — Too many mistakes. Too many errors. Too many miscues. A top-10 team via the AP college football rankings, Kentucky did not play like a top-10 team in its 22-19 loss at Ole Miss on Saturday.
I’m not so sure the winners are the better team. Yes, the Rebels outgained the Cats 399-328. They made winning plays when they needed to make winning plays. Lane Kiffin’s squad is now 5-0, while Kentucky dropped to 4-1.
But here’s the first tenant of football: Don’t beat yourself. And Kentucky beat itself at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
“We didn’t play very clean,” UK Coach Mark Stoops said afterward. “Not very precise in certain areas.”
Let us count the ways. A makeable 39-yard field goal missed. An extra-point attempt blocked. An extra-point attempt snap botched. An intentional grounding penalty in UK’s own end zone for a safety that gave Ole Miss two points. A lost fumble on the visitors’ next-to-last drive. An illegal motion penalty that erased a touchdown. Another lost fumble on Kentucky’s final drive.
“That’s on me,” UK quarterback Will Levis said.
After a slow start, Kentucky’s defense played well enough to win. Ole Miss entered the game fourth in the nation in rushing, averaging 280.7 yards per game. It finished with 186. After giving up 14 points in the first quarter, UK’s defense held Kiffin’s up-tempo offense to a pair of field goals.
(Afterward, Lane was Lane, saying that a quote from UK offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello — “We like it when other teams blitz us” — fired up his team, then delivering another jab about the Ole Miss defense being able to “hold them to 19 points when they have the first pick in the draft.”)
On the other side, Kentucky’s offense remains a work in progress. Barion Brown was brilliant. The freshman wide receiver returned one kickoff 85 yards, another 54. He transformed a simple wide receiver screen into a 51-yard gain that pumped life into the cause; the Cats down three with a minute to go. Chris Rodriguez’s return was welcome. In his 2022 debut the preseason All-SEC back rushed for 72 yards on 19 carries.
Levis’ day was mixed. Kentucky’s most important player, that “first pick in the draft,” made throws that kept hope alive. He missed throws, too. Just missed. He made a poor decision to take the safety. And those two fumbles. Ole Miss popped the ball loose on the first. By his own admission, Levis held the ball too long on the second, allowing Ole Miss’ defensive end to hit the quarterback’s right arm.
Better protection would have helped. Kentucky’s offensive line was good, not great. To get full use of Levis’ obvious arm talent and UK’s speed at receiver, Scangarello wants to throw the ball down the field. That requires time to run routes. And better pocket awareness from the quarterback.
Overall, it was a frustrating and disappointing loss for the huge contingent of Kentucky fans who made the trip to Oxford for what was a gorgeous football afternoon.
“I felt like it was evenly matched going into it,” Stoops said afterward. “We had every opportunity to win it and it just didn’t happen.”
Here’s the second tenant of football: Don’t let one loss become two.
South Carolina visits Kroger Field on Saturday night. After plenty of preseason hype, the Gamecocks are 3-2 overall, 0-2 in the SEC. They lost to Arkansas 44-30 on the road. They were trounced by No. 1-ranked Georgia 49-7 at home. They’ve lost seven of their last eight games against Kentucky.
Big question: Sure to be favored this Saturday, how will the Cats react to last Saturday’s outcome? Will they come out angry? Will they come out flat, still lamenting the would’ves/should’ves from the week before? For the most part, this is a mature team with mature leaders. That’ll be put to the test this week.
“We really have to lean on our leadership,” senior linebacker DeAndre Square said Saturday. “We’ve got guys who’ve been here before.”
After all, after violating football’s first tenant, violating the second would be an even worse mistake.
