Texas beat Kentucky in the trenches

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian immediately discussed the need for big humans in the trenches. The Longhorns have aggressively recruited the offensive and defensive lines with elite high school recruiting and have spent important resources to build the defensive front in the transfer portal.

An argument can be made that Texas has the best trench unit in college football with two potential first-round picks on the offensive line and outstanding depth on the defensive line. That showed up in the 31-14 win against Kentucky before a sold-out crowd of 102,811 at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

Kentucky lost the trench battle on both sides in a big way, and that ultimately made the biggest difference in Week 13. Live from Austin, KSR is diving into what we saw as the Wildcats fell to 4-7 (1-7) and saw their eight-year bowl streak end.

QB change does not lead to more points

Trailing 24-7 at halftime, Kentucky’s coaching staff decided to make a change at quarterback. True freshman Cutter Boley checked in and received five full drives in the second half. Kentucky generated four scoring possessions but scored zero points.

Kentucky started consecutive possessions in Texas territory and only generated one red zone possession. The drives turned into a missed field goal and a second-and-goal at the Texas 1 turning into a turnover on downs. The same problems remained the same problems despite Boley generating five explosive completions in 23 dropbacks.

Bush Hamdan‘s offense could never establish the run (80 rushing yards on 20 carries from the tailbacks) and could not create clean pockets. Texas recorded six sacks, five non-sack tackles for loss, three QB hurries, and generated two takeaways in 11 possessions.

Kentucky’s offensive line lost the trench battle and that made operating down-to-down difficult. That showed up when the field shrunk as Kentucky needed to finish drives deep into Texas territory.

Some of the young talent flashed with Boley (160 passing yards on 8.9 yards per attempt), Jamarion Wilcox (50 rushing yards), and Willie Rodriguez (three receptions for 53 yards), but the same problems remained the same problems. Kentucky is failing to win the line of scrimmage battle, and that makes things difficult for the rest of the offense.

Kentucky’s strong run defense has disappeared

In September games against Ole Miss and Georgia, Kentucky’s defensive line controlled the game. This front stuffed the run and generated consistent pressure on the quarterback. That has disappeared since the first bye week of the season.

Florida, Auburn, and Tennessee all rolled up over 200 non-sack rushing yards against this defense. The Wildcats allowed 10 rushing touchdowns during that stretch. That bad streak continued against Texas.

The Longhorns rushed for 256 non-sack yards and two touchdowns in the win. On the game-clinching drive in the fourth quarter, Steve Sarkisian’s offense marched 86 yards in 15 plays while milking over eight minutes off the game clock. The drive included nothing but tailback runs.

Quintrevion Wisner set a career-high in rushing yards (158) in the win. The sophomore carried the ball 11 times in that final touchdown drive. The former top-500 recruit became the third running back to set a career-high in rushing yards joining Florida’s Jadan Baugh (106 yards) and Auburn’s Jarquez Hunter (278 yards).

In a game where quarterback Quinn Ewers looked rattled in the second half following a strip sack fumble in the third quarter, Kentucky could not put some late game pressure on the quarterback as Texas was literally able to run out the clock in the fourth quarter.

We have seen some legitimate defensive slippage from Kentucky since October, and most of that is tied to the run defense. Despite getting healthy coming out of the second bye week, this unit was unable to reach its September standard again. That is making it difficult to create consistent stops against good offenses.

The same problems remained the same problems in Austin

Kentucky’s offensive line struggles to protect. Kentucky is unable to finish drives in the low red zone. Kentucky’s run defense has become one of the worst in the SEC since October. Kentucky cannot score against SEC competition.

In the loss to No. 3 Texas, the same problems for this football team remained the same problems.

The Wildcats have an assortment of offensive issues that have not been fixed despite playing three quarterbacks, owning a healthy running back rotation, and trying to play more young players at wide receiver and tight end. Kentucky’s defense has also played a part in the season slippage as a stout run defense has all but disappeared since the Ole Miss win.

There is a big rivalry game against Louisville remaining where Kentucky will look to extend its winning streak to six games in the Governor’s Cup series, but those problems likely will not be fixed during Thanksgiving week.

We’re all waiting for December to see how Mark Stoops and his program attempts to fix the problems. The head coach made a verbal commitment to offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan in his postgame press conference. A move to Cutter Boley seems highly likely, but there are some job rumors surrounding defensive Brad White, and many needs will need to be checked in the transfer portal.

One more big game remains, but a bigger offseason is on deck. That is where Kentucky’s problems will have to be fixed.