Kentucky had one last letdown for the 2024 season, but now it can't hurt you anymore

Finally, Kentucky’s 2024 football season is over. It can’t hurt you anymore.

The Wildcats ended the extremely disappointing year with one last Saturday letdown for the program’s most loyal supporters, losing at home to Louisville by 27 points in the Governor’s Cup. You never want to lose the Governor’s Cup to Louisville, no matter the circumstances. This year, though, the loss sucked worse than others because it snapped Kentucky’s five-year win streak in the rivalry and, in the bigger picture, threw gasoline onto Mark Stoops’ hot seat. Fans aren’t just disappointed by Stoops after the 4-8 season without a bowl game; many are through with him.

Several of those Kentucky Football fans made their Stoops opinions known on their way out of the stadium at halftime. With Louisville up 20 and a 0 next to Kentucky on the scoreboard, a mass exodus hit the parking lots with two quarters still to play, voicing their frustrations about Stoops and Kentucky’s effort in the home finale. Nobody expected Kentucky, a four-point home underdog, to win its last home game and keep the Cup in Lexington for a sixth year. But there was and will forever be an expectation that the team should show up to compete, which Kentucky did not do to the level of its opponent, a team it beat in six of the last seven meetings.

Mark Stoops said afterward, “We’ve been on the right side of (the rivalry) for many years, and we know what it feels like to be on the right side of it, and we know now for the first time in a long time what it feels like to be on the wrong side of it, and it’s not very much fun.

“I know the year was very frustrating to a lot of people,” he added. “To our fan base, they were wonderful and stuck with us the entire year, once again out there today, and, sorry we did not deliver a better performance today and throughout the season.”

0-5 at home against the SEC and Louisville

Unless you were impressed by wins over Southern Miss, Ohio, and Murray State, the 2024 home stand in Kroger Field was a disaster. It began in Week 2 with a surprising 31-6 loss to South Carolina when expectations were still high around the Wildcats and Kentucky a heavy home favorite in the SEC opener. Little did anyone know that the loss to the Gamecocks was only the beginning of the home letdowns.

After losing to South Carolina, a bounce-back performance against Georgia showed signs of hope, even in a loss to the Bulldogs at Kroger Field. However, home losses to Vanderbilt and Auburn, again as the betting favorite, followed in October, securing a 0-4 league record for Kentucky in Lexington. The fans showed up for all four of those games, only to leave disappointed again and again.

On Saturday, Louisville was the final blow, a microcosm of the year’s problems. The offense struggled as it did all year, this time with a new quarterback in place. The Wildcats went 0-9 on third down and failed to score more than 20 points again. Kentucky didn’t score more than 20 in any game against a Power Four opponent. Terrible.

On defense, Kentucky’s front, considered its strength throughout training camp, failed to meet its potential one last time, surrendering 358 rushing yards on its own turf to the Cards. Isaac Brown and Duke Watson had career days on the ground, each with over 100 yards and two TDs apiece.

And the turnovers. Kentucky won last year’s Governor’s Cup by forcing turnovers. This year, the script flipped as the Wildcats turned it over five times to the Cardinals, including a momentum-killing fumble on the game’s first drive. Jamarion Wilcox fumbled again in the second half as soon as the Wildcats found some life, in addition to two Cutter Boley interceptions and one by Gavin Wimsatt, who took over for Boley at QB.

Kentucky had more turnovers than touchdowns against the SEC and Louisville.

So what now?

Mark Stoops isn’t going anywhere, according to Mark Stoops. He said after the game, “Everybody wants to replace me right now, but I’m not going anywhere. My butt is going to work tomorrow, and I’m going to try and be motivated as hell to get this thing fixed and get better.”

But getting fixed and getting better is an enormous hill to climb right now. Kentucky needs game-ready portal additions at several positions, plus likely staff moves and one gigantic PR battle to win back the fans for next season.

The next few days could and will likely be chaos around Kentucky as the work starts now to fix all of the problems of 2024, of which there were far too many. The news will be flowing soon. Before it does, let’s slam the book closed on the Governor’s Cup and the biggest letdown of a season in recent memory. Thankfully, it can’t hurt us anymore.