Kentucky must 'flush' blowout loss, respond to adversity

Even after a deflating, 38-point loss on the road to the No. 1 team in the country, there’s a silver lining in every situation. After falling 51-13 at Georgia, Mark Stoops took the loss to the chin and reminded his players to not keep their heads down for long.

“The good news is this only counts as one (loss). We have to respond,” said Kentucky’s head coach. “I’ll put this one on me. We weren’t prepared. We didn’t play very good in any area. They beat us from the start to the finish.”

Georgia completely controlled the football game. The Dawgs were dominant and Carson Beck was dialed in. The Georgia quarterback completed his first 12 passes and threw for a career-high 389 yards and four touchdowns.

“It’s not our standard,” said defensive coordinator Brad White. “There’s no way to sugarcoat it. There’s no way to sit up here and tell you — listen, we got whipped.”

Georgia out-gained Kentucky 608-183. The Wildcats actually won the turnover battle, but it didn’t matter. Georgia averaged 8.3 yards per play, while Kentucky’s offense couldn’t get out of its own way.

“I’m just frustrated, disappointed for the guys,” said offensive coordinator Liam Coen. “We want to be better for the guys. We want to be better for each other, but we got to move on fast.”

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Day 1 Message: Responding to Adversity

It’s difficult to discern exactly what the team is going through after such a deflating defeat. Ray Davis was in a similar situations at Vanderbilt. Even though he had a few quality moments on the field, he’s moving forward away from this loss as fast as possible.

“It’s in the memory bank. We got to flush it and just focus on trying to get better, fix the things we need to get fixed and just get back to the drawing board,” said the Kentucky running back.

“We got a good opponent coming up with Mizzou next weekend and just focus on that. Obviously, it was a tough loss. We worked our butts off all week. We wish the outcome was different, but you know, it’s football. The game, it’s wins and losses, and it’s about how you battle adversity and come back.”

Kentucky is not in uncharted waters. Around this time a year ago the Wildcats walked into a buzzsaw at Tennessee. Following the primetime blowout, Kentucky crumble down the stretch, finishing the year 2-3 with a loss to Vandy.

In the offseason Stoops recognized the error of his ways. He addressed the previous year’s shortcomings in the first team meeting of the year.

“I didn’t think I did a very good job of having the team handle adversity, and I knew it was gonna come,” Stoops said Saturday. “That doesn’t mean I believed we were gonna lose the game, but even in a game you’re gonna go through some adversity, some tough times, interceptions, momentum swings. You’re going to hit it and you have to respond the right way.

“I will not tolerate us not responding. We’re going to respond. I have great respect for Missouri and we always have good games. We have to get back. This one counts as one loss. It’s the only good thing about this beatdown.”

Mark Stoops made mental toughness the highest priority for his program. How the Wildcats respond to adversity from between the hedges will define the 2023 Kentucky football season.

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