Kentucky is looking for answers on defense

Kentucky has played four top-20 teams this season. The Wildcats are 0-4 in those games with three losses of 17-plus points. Those top-level offenses are averaging 42.7 points per game, and only two games were in doubt in the fourth quarter. This will end up being the story of the 2023 season.

In wins over Vanderbilt, Florida, and Mississippi State, Kentucky is allowing only 15 points per game on 4.3 yards per play. There is some good in there somewhere, but things are falling to pieces against the best teams on the schedule.

Contests against South Carolina and Louisville remain. Neither is a top-20 offense, according to ESPN’s opponent and tempo-adjusted SP+ rankings. However, each is much better than Mississippi State and Vanderbilt. Florida is a fair comp for each. Will the unit that smothered the Gators show up in the last two weeks or will we see more of the same to close the season?

Kentucky is going back to the drawing board in the defensive meeting room at the Joe Craft Football Training Facility. The Wildcats are receiving a fair share of criticism and are searching for solutions.

“Everything is fair to look at. When we analyze games — contrary to what people think — we’re not as hard-headed as everybody thinks. We look at everything. And we second guess ourselves, of course. When something doesn’t work, maybe we should’ve done this or that,” Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops told reporters on Monday. “We look at a lot of things and analyze it all. All the time.”

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“We constantly make subtle changes and try to do the best we can to put our players in a position to be successful. Sometimes it’s very hard matchups. You gotta win. You can’t protect all the time. There’s not a lot of magical calls.”

Football is often a personnel game. A case can be made that there might be a Jimmies and Joes problem on defense. Most notably, the secondary is the one group having the biggest issues, but the roster is the roster at this point. Kentucky will get a chance to re-evaluate its team-building strategy in the offseason, but for now, the Wildcats must find some solutions to create some more stops.

Not playing any more top-15 offenses will certainly help. But you still have to go out and make the stops. Kentucky is looking for answers and will attempt to adjust accordingly but the season is not over, and this football team knows that. There are still two big games to be played.

“We’re not defeated,” said Stoops.