A disappointing result but an encouraging fight by Kentucky against Georgia

There are no moral victories in SEC football. You win, or you lose. Kentucky lost to No. 1 Georgia on Saturday to fall to 0-2 in the SEC standings. However, given the circumstances, it felt a little bit like a win, morally, in how the Wildcats responded to adversity.

After one of the biggest letdowns of the Mark Stoops era last Saturday, the Wildcats gave the Dawgs, winners of 42 straight regular season games, one of the biggest scares of Georgia’s current dynasty. Georgia didn’t lead until the fourth quarter when Branson Robinson’s go-ahead touchdown run put Georgia up 13-9. Until then, Kentucky led at halftime and the entire third quarter of a game that most, if not everyone, believed would be a blowout loss for the Wildcats.

In the lead-up, Stoops felt some heat from the fan base for how Kentucky performed (or didn’t perform) against South Carolina in Week 2. The 31-6 home loss sent Big Blue Nation into an early-season panic, questioning everything from the head coach to the offensive line, the quarterback to the offensive coordinator, or if Kentucky would even make a bowl game in 2024. BBN was in a bad place.

Before losing to the Gamecocks on September 7, the Kentucky-Georgia game was a hot ticket, nearly impossible to find. But after UK’s Week 2 disappointment, several ticketholders listed their Georgia tickets for cheap on the secondary market, even selling many seats to the opposing fans, which is why so much red made it into the game. We had more tickets donated than we could give away on the KSR Pregame Show. The Big Blue Nation had soured on football only two games into a new season.

But like Stoops often tells his teams, things are never as good as they seem and never as bad. Against Georgia, Kentucky proved that it is a lot better than how it looked one week prior, and the fan reaction to that one game was an overreaction.

Those fans who already threw in the towel on Kentucky in 2024 missed a great game on Saturday, nearly one of the biggest upsets in Kentucky’s history. The narrow, one-point loss to Georgia didn’t cancel out last week’s loss to South Carolina, but the effort went a long way in restoring energy and support in the season. Fans are still disappointed by the outcome and in some of the coaching decisions, like the one to punt in the fourth. People are pretty hot about that move. But Kentucky lined up with the best team in college football and had the Dawgs against the ropes, so there are plenty of positive takeaways moving forward.

The defense was outstanding, holding Georgia to its lowest point total since 2021 and a third straight game in Lexington with under 20 points. ESPN Stats & Info noted that Georgia has been held below 20 points on the road three times in five years, and all three instances were in Lexington.

In the last 5 seasons, Georgia has been held below 20 points on the road 3 times:

– 16 points at Kentucky in 2022
– 14 points at Kentucky in 2020
– 13 points at Kentucky tonight

Georgia is 3-0 in those games. pic.twitter.com/ODPecvHetv

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) September 15, 2024

The run game looked good against an elite defense. Down to two scholarship tailbacks, Kentucky’s Demie Sumo-Karngbaye and Jamarion Wilcox combined for 141 yards on 31 carries, averaging 4.5 yards per run. Brock Vandagriff, playing against his old team, added 68 non-sack rushing yards, including a 17-yarder on the second play of the game to get the offense off of its own goalline. Vandagriff’s passing numbers were better, too. He completed 14 of 27 for 114 yards, a 52 percent completion rate following a 3-for-10 game last week.

Though improved, Kentucky’s offense didn’t find the end zone for a second straight week. Still, the 12 points scored, all by kicker Alex Raynor, doubled up the six total points Georgia allowed in its first two games. Clemson scored only three against Georgia in the season opener, so we can say Kentucky is four times better than Clemson.

Stoops: “I’m not saying I’m pleased with a moral victory”

Again, there are no moral victories. Kentucky’s official record is 1-2 through three games after its 15th straight loss to Georgia. There wasn’t a celebration in Lexington for playing Georgia to within a point.

There were, however, positive comments from Mark Stoops after the game. He said in his postgame press conference, “I am proud of our players with how hard they played and picking themselves up off the mat after, again, a performance a week ago that none of us were very pleased with, and had to rebound and play the No. 1 ranked team in the country, and came out and played them toe to toe.”

But no moral victories. Kentucky is past those.

“I’m not saying I’m pleased with a moral victory,” Stoops said. “We’re, what, 10 years past that. But I do care about the way we play. I do care about our preparation. I care about the way we represent the fan base, the way we represent this university, the way we play. And we played hard, and I thought we had opportunities to win the game.”

Kentucky couldn’t make enough plays to beat Georgia, but the way the Wildcats played shutdown defense should present several more opportunities to win games the rest of the way. The team’s response and shift in attitude likely won a lot of fans back, too. For those reasons, there was a lot of good against Georgia, even in defeat.