Kentucky's Supporting Cast Failed Kaiya Sheron

Kentucky did not lose to South Carolina because of the play of Kaiya Sheron. Heck, he was trying to open a hole for Barion Brown when the Wildcats fumbled away the lead on the opening play of the game. The redshirt freshman from Somerset looked like a first-time starter, but he is not to blame for the Wildcats’ disappointing performance.

“He did some good things when he had time,” Mark Stoops said after the game. “I don’t think we played very good around him. One thing that I put on all of us — myself, coaches and the team — I told the team that I don’t think we responded and played very well around him.

“I thought we played as poorly as we have all year in certain positions around a first-time starter and I don’t think that’s right for that young man. There’s things that he did very well and there’s areas where we didn’t we didn’t do a good enough job around him.”

Kaiya Sheron completed 15-of-27 passes for 178 yards, one more than former five-star prospect Spencer Rattler. He threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Dingle to tie the game in the first half. Sheron threw for another score and an interception late in the fourth quarter once the game was out of reach.

“First start so you’re trying to get someone to settle in. You never know how you’re going to react. I didn’t feel like it was too big for him,” said offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello. “I felt like he was seeing it, composed and all that. We just got off to a poor start and never found a rhythm. I don’t know if we had a good enough plan to give him a chance to be successful the way it played out, so that’s on me.”

Despite the early turnover, Sheron had a few chances to make big throws that were inches away from turning into explosive plays. One early bootleg to Dane Key was just outside of the wide receiver’s reach. Barion Brown had a conversion on third and long go through his hands. Sheron also spent a lot of time running away from pass rushers. The Somerset native was sacked six times, with three late in the fourth quarter.

“It’s hard when you don’t want to take a negative and you don’t want to get behind the chains,” said the offensive coordinator.

Ideally, the success of the running game could open up avenues for the Wildcats to take off the restraints and let Sheron rip the ball down the field. Chris Rodriguez nearly surpassed 100 yards in the first half. Once they got away from him in the second half, those big negative plays added up, ultimately eliminating any sort of offensive momentum.

“You can churn out the five, six-yard runs and all that, but you need to also convert on third down to stay out there when you’re playing that way. You gotta take care of the football, you can’t take sacks, you can’t jump offsides, false start. We false started twice on the same play-call,” said Scangarello.

Kentucky did not help Kaiya Sheron, but there’s no denying there a different team without Will Levis on the field..

“Will can do things that I can’t,” Sheron said. “He’s a very talented guy, a first round draft pick in my opinion, a lot of people’s opinions. He’s a talented guy.”

It may be the only time we see Sheron starting this season. Levis is aiming to return next Saturday against Mississippi State. Regardless of the redshirt freshman quarterback’s performance, Kentucky should have been good enough to beat South Carolina. Simply put, Mark Stoops’ squad did not bring it.

“The competitive character that we generally play with wasn’t there,” said the UK head coach.