Louisville ends Kentucky's disappointing season in humiliating fashion

Louisville is a good football team. Kentucky is not a good football team. The 35th meeting of the Governor’s Cup confirmed that on Saturday afternoon at Kroger Field.

The game started with a Kentucky lost fumble where Louisville safety Tamarion McDonald ripped the ball away from Kentucky tailback Jamarion Wilcox. That was a sign of things to come.

Louisville lit up the scoreboard for 41 points, scored a defensive touchdown, and rushed for over 300 yards in a 27-point win. The Governor’s Cup is heading down I-64 West this Thanksgiving Saturday.

What comes next for this program? We’re unpacking that along with what we saw in the final game of the season as Kentucky finishes the season at 4-8.

What happened to Kentucky’s run defense?

Kentucky’s defensive line controlled the game in September conference matchups against Georgia and Ole Miss. This talented and experienced front stuffed the run and generated consistent pressure on the quarterback.

That has disappeared since the first bye week of the season.

Florida, Auburn, Texas, and Tennessee all rolled up over 200 non-sack rushing yards against this defense. The Wildcats allowed 12 rushing touchdowns during that stretch.

The worst performance of the season occurred on Saturday in the 41-14 loss to Louisville.

Tyler Shough (9-of-18 for 128 yards) did not throw a pass in the final 20 minutes of the football game. No dropbacks were needed because Kentucky could not fit the run.

Louisville rolled up 358 non-sack rushing yards on 7.0 yards per rush. The Cardinals produced eight explosive run plays with three touchdowns of 20-plus yards. True freshman tailback Isaac Brown and Duke Watson combined to rush for 282 yards on 32 attempts. Kentucky had no chance in this game if they couldn’t stop the run.

.@IsaacBrown305 is unstoppable!!

📺 SEC Network#GoCards pic.twitter.com/2HCoKg7GuN

— Louisville Football (@LouisvilleFB) November 30, 2024

The Wildcats want to be a line-of-scrimmage program. Line-of-scrimmage programs cannot get bullied in the run game. That consistently happened over the last half of the season as the team’s biggest strength became a legitimate weakness. Things got worse when redshirt senior linebacker D’Eryk Jackson was lost for the season and Kentucky never recovered.

There are many things to fix in the offseason. Fixing the run defense is at the top of the list.

Kentucky has QB questions entering the offseason

Cutter Boley had a productive performance against Murray State leading the offense to multiple scoring drives in the second half. The true freshman quarterback backed that up with a promising performance off the bench against an elite Texas pass defense creating five explosive completions.

There was some buzz about what the spark could be for the offense with Boley getting a start. Things did not go well.

The blue-chip recruit finished the game 6-of-15 for 48 yards and two interceptions. Boley took two sacks and averaged only 1.5 yards per dropback. One interception occurred in the red zone and another happened on what appeared to be a post-snap misread as Louisville disguised a coverage pre-snap.

Kentucky had no passing game to speak of and that led to five punts and three turnovers in eight first half possessions. Boley was then lost to injury following a hit by Louisville defensive tackle Thor Griffith that ended in a targeting call in the third quarter.

In his postgame press conference, Mark Stoops discussed the need to build a good team around the young quarterback. Boley will be a redshirt freshman that Kentucky hopes can become a pillar for a program that needs a rebuild but it’s clear that some development is needed.

There was a hope that a positive performance from the young quarterback could be a sign that things could get flipped quickly next year once the rest of the offensive roster was supplemented with transfer additions. Saturday just proved that Kentucky will enter the year with a big unknown at quarterback and some transfer help at the position might be needed again.

There is also outside-the-building help needed at other positions. We all know about the offensive line but tailback was a disappointment on Saturday as Jamarion Wilcox had the ball ripped away twice in two very important drives with the game still in doubt.

Kentucky has a lot to fix. Stoops plans to press the continuity button with offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan and offensive line coach Eric Wolford. The development of Boley is a key offseason storyline but how Kentucky handles quarterback and every other offensive position seems just as critical.

There is not much to point to right now. This feels like it could be a long rebuild.

What happens next?

Following his press conference, Mark Stoops jumped on the Kentucky postgame show with Tom Leach and addressed his future at Kentucky. All signs point to a 13th year as the leader of this SEC football program.

“Everyone wants to replace me right now. But I am not going anywhere. My butt will be in my office tomorrow. Anyone who wants me to be gone anywhere is wishful thinking. My butt is going to work

I am sorry I disappointed folks. But I am optimistic we will turn it around”

Stoops

— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) November 30, 2024

Stoops has spoken. Now it’s time to fix the problems. Are they fixable?

Super senior Eli Cox addressed the current problems with the program earlier this week and didn’t believe that there was a quick fix. Mark Stoops indirectly pointed to South Carolina as a team that went from a losing season to 9-3 in just one offseason. The head coach is telling the fan base that this can be flipped but there are no PR wins right now.

This will be a long offseason for the Kentucky football program. Pessimism will be everywhere. Selling season tickets will be more difficult. Selling hope will almost be impossible. Kentucky has to fix the culture and find an identity while facing a home schedule that includes Florida, Tennessee, Texas, and Ole Miss. There’s also road trips to Auburn, Georgia, South Carolina, and Louisville. Another long season seems likely unless Kentucky hits multiple home runs this offseason.

Kentucky has lost momentum. Can Mark Stoops get it back? We will find over over the next calendar year but there is no denying that the current outlook is bleak.