Three takeaways from Kentucky football’s loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks

Three takeaways from Kentucky football’s 17-14 loss to South Carolina on Saturday night at Williams-Brice Stadium:

1. Another disappointing loss in a disappointing season

Mark Stoops once owned South Carolina. Through the 2021 season, the Kentucky coach was 7-2 against the Gamecocks. He was 2-1 against the great Steve Spurrier, 3-1 against Will Muschamp and 1-0 against interim coach Mike Bobo. In 2021, he introduced Carolina’s new coach Shane Beamer to the series with UK’s seventh win in eight seasons over the Gamecocks.

Then came last season when, without injured quarterback Will Levis, the Cats lost 24-14 at home to Beamer’s Gamecocks. And then came Saturday night when — oh no, not again — Stoops fell to 2-1 against Beamer with a three-point loss to a South Carolina team that was left for dead at 2-6 just a couple of weeks ago.

“I’ve been doing this a long time in this league and at Kentucky, and that’s very difficult loss for us right there,” Stoops said afterward. “I’m so very disappointed for our players that we didn’t do a better job of putting them in a position to be successful.”

The Cats dug and early 10-0 hole, then fought back to take a 14-10 lead in the third quarter. Stoops’ club had two possessions after that to extend the lead but failed. Even when South Carolina reclaimed the lead 17-14, Kentucky had three straight possessions with a chance to either tie or take the lead. Instead, it punted near midfield, fumbled the ball away on a hit on quarterback Devin Leary, then turned the ball over on downs with 14 seconds remaining.

As Stoops said, “We had numerous opportunities” but could not take advantage. Sound familiar? This year it does.

And so the Cats now officially finish below .500 in the SEC at 3-5 for the second straight season. They are 6-5 overall with the regular season finale at archrival Louisville remaining.

2. Kentucky’s offense wasn’t nearly good enough

Coming into Saturday night’s game, Kentucky faced a South Carolina defense that ranked 106th nationally in total defense, allowing 413.6 yards per game. The Gamecocks were 59th in rush defense at 145.2 per game and 124th in pass defense at 268.4 yards per game. Most important, South Carolina was 93rd in scoring defense at 28.6 points per game.

On a night when UK’s defense held South Carolina to 17 points, Kentucky scored all of 14. Only Vanderbilt (6six) scored fewer points against the Gamecocks this season. Kentucky managed just 293 yards of total offense. It threw for 171 and passed for 122. It averaged just 4.8 yards per play against a defense that was allowing 5.67 yards per play.

“On the offensive side of the ball, we’re taking this one. We just are,” offensive coordinator Liam Coen said afterward. “The defense did plenty for us to win this game.”

Quarterback Devin Leary was 17 of 34 for 171 yards passing with one touchdown and one interception. That interception was his first red zone interception of the season. It was the first of two turnovers on the Cats’ final two drives of the first half. Dane Key fumbled away the second after making a nice run after catch.

Many of Leary’s incompletions were deep shots to receivers in which the Cats just could not connect. There were opportunities. Overthrows. Misreads. There was a deep pass down the left sideline in which Barion Brown had a chance to make a play but couldn’t come down with the catch. UK’s longest pass play of the night was 20 yards.

And in the end, when UK needed that field goal to tie or touchdown, the Cats could not make the plays needed to win the game.

Since that 33-14 win over Florida back on Sept. 30, the offensive consistency and explosiveness has just not been there. Even in the 24-3 win at Mississippi State, UK made too many mistakes on offense. The same thing happened Saturday night against a mediocre defense, at best.

3. UK and U of L are two teams going in different directions

Kentucky has one regular season game left. It’s the Louisville game, this year at Louisville. It’s a rivalry game, of course, but this year it’s a rivalry game with a twist. Louisville’s trend arrow is pointed up. Way up. Kentucky’s arrow is pointed down.

Under new coach Jeff Brohm, Louisville won 38-31 at Miami on Saturday to clinch a spot in the ACC championship game. The Cardinals are 10-1 overall and 7-1 in the ACC. They would love nothing better than to close out a magical regular season by snapping a four-game losing streak to their rival up the road.

After a 5-0 start, Kentucky has now dropped five of its last six games. It was routed by the two best teams on its schedule — 51-13 at Georgia and 49-21 at home by Alabama. It blew an early 14-0 lead in a 38-21 home loss to Missouri. It couldn’t close the deal in a 33-27 home loss to Tennessee. And how it has lost to South Carolina for the second straight season.

To upset Louisville at L&N Stadium would take some of the sting out of what has transpired in this Kentucky season. That’s going to be a tall task, and given the way the Cats have played over this second half of 2023, it’s doubtful they are up to that task. Even in a rivalry game.

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