Shane Beamer upended Kentucky football. Now, Mississippi State can land a knockout | Toppmeyer

Shane Beamer traveled to Lexington, Kentucky, prepared to hang on the rim.

South Carolina’s football coach busted out the white-rimmed sunglasses he packed for the trip and danced during a locker-room celebration of the Gamecocks’ 24-14 win at Kentucky while his players sang "Turn My Swag On."

“That was a joyous, joyous locker room," Beamer told me Wednesday.

The locker-room scene was a remix of the preseason dance Beamer filmed wearing those sunglasses while Soulja Boy's 2008 hit song played. South Carolina released that clip on social media to hype Beamer's SEC media days appearance. That preceded this quote from Kentucky’s Mark Stoops:

“Dance around, put on some stupid sunglasses, and you can change a climate, but to change a culture, it's at the core,” Stoops told the SEC Network in the summer.

Stoops later denied his quote was a reference to South Carolina or Beamer, but if you believe that, I’ve got some oceanfront property in Tennessee I’d like to sell you.

Believe this: A Kentucky season once full of great expectations is on life support after suffering an embarrassing loss to Beamer’s Gamecocks.

“Somebody mentioned to me at the beginning of the week, ‘Hey, take those sunglasses for after the game, if we were to win.’ So, I guess early in the week, I felt like, if we’re fortunate enough to win that game, it’s something I may do,” Beamer said. “Having said that, let me say this, too: I’ve got tons of respect for Coach Stoops and his program and the way they do things. I had a great conversation with Mark before the game about that incident from media days.

“As a head coach, though, you’re always looking for extra motivation for your guys each week."

Motivation, apparently, has been an issue for Kentucky.

“Challenged them every week about high energy,” Stoops said Monday, when asked about a lack of juice against the Gamecocks. “I guess I could talk about it until I’m blue in the face, but they better do something about it.”

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Stoops, too, better do something about his team’s freefall.

After absorbing back-to-back losses to Ole Miss and South Carolina, No. 17 Mississippi State will come to Lexington on Saturday with a chance to shovel dirt on Kentucky's season.

Whether he intended to or not, Stoops' chutzpa raised the bar of expectations this summer after he scoffed at John Calipari’s truthful statement that UK is a basketball school.

Stoops, to his credit, achieved two 10-win seasons in the past four years, and the Wildcats entered this year ranked in the AP’s preseason Top 25 for the first time since 1978, then climbed as high as No. 7 in the AP rankings before spiraling.

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Quarterback Will Levis being sidelined with injury against South Carolina limited the Wildcats, but Levis played the previous week, when UK mustered 19 points against Ole Miss. Levis' absence didn’t cause Kentucky to fumble on its first play against South Carolina or contribute to continued special teams gaffes.

The Wildcats’ struggles date to a narrow win over Northern Illinois to finish September.

Stoops’ team couldn’t beat the man in the shades, and come Sunday, after a game against Mike Leach’s surging Bulldogs, it will be time for basketball season in Lexington.

Alabama football's extra weapon? Derek Dooley

Tennessee serves as a breeding ground for Alabama coaching staff analysts.

First, fired Vols coach Butch Jones worked as an Alabama analyst – coach Nick Saban initially dubbed Jones "an intern" – for three seasons. Now, former Tennessee coach Derek Dooley is in his first season as an analyst on Saban's staff.

By the way, has anyone seen Jeremy Pruitt lately?

Dooley ranks among the worst coaches in Tennessee history, fired amid his third season in 2012. Saban's Crimson Tide went 3-0 against Dooley's Vols, winning by exactly 31 points each time.

"They were always difficult to play against," Saban said Wednesday, without a hint of the sarcasm required to make such an assessment.

Dooley has become "a good sounding board" for Saban.

Vols fans should be so lucky.

In truth, the Vols may finally have a coach, Josh Heupel, prepared to match wits with Alabama's mastermind in a clash of undefeated teams on Saturday at Neyland Stadium.

Email of the week

Steve writes: Know it’s a long shot, but if you know anyone who has BAMA-Tennessee tix they want to get rid of, I would like to buy them.

My response: I don’t have a line on tickets, but if you sell both kidneys and a liver, you might be able to score some. Should be a fun one. Hope you land some tickets.

Three and out

1. Lane Kiffin said he "probably should have taken a knee" instead of keeping the pedal down against Vanderbilt last Saturday. Walk-on Matt Jones plunged into the end zone with 18 seconds remaining for a 24-point victory. The touchdown allowed Ole Miss to cover the point spread, although Kiffin didn't mention that among his motivations for trying to score. No need for Kiffin to worry about unwritten rules of sportsmanship. His run-it-up approach will make him more endearing to Ole Miss fans, plus gamblers who had the Rebels to cover the spread. If an opponent doesn't want a walk-on to score a touchdown, then play some defense.

2. Brian Kelly's assessment of life in the SEC: "Average is going to get you beat," LSU's first-year coach said. Depends on the opponent, I say. An average LSU performance was enough to beat lowly Auburn. A lousy LSU performance resulted in Tennessee beating the doors off the Tigers. Two average teams will meet Saturday in the Swamp.

3. Johnny Manziel caused a stir when he dubbed Jimbo Fisher's play call "one of the worst calls I’ve ever seen in my life," after Texas A&M's incomplete pass to the sideline from the 2-yard line on the final play of Saturday's 24-20 loss to Alabama. While I don't applaud the play call, I think Manziel's critique misses the forest for the trees: Fisher, a one-time quarterback guru, has not recruited or developed elite quarterbacks at Texas A&M. Had a quarterback of Manziel's ilk been in uniform at Bryant-Denny Stadium, the Aggies would have won with ease, regardless of play-calling.

Blake Toppmeyer is an SEC Columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

The "Topp Rope," is his twice-weekly SEC football column publishing throughout the USA TODAY Network. If you enjoy Blake’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it. Also, check out his podcast, SEC Football Unfiltered, or access exclusive columns via the SEC Unfiltered newsletter.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Kentucky football, Mark Stoops spiral before Mississippi State game