Kentucky's defense bent until it broke on critical 4th and 1 penalty

The Kentucky defense bent as long as it could before breaking without any offensive help against South Carolina. Brad White’s unit let up on a busted coverage to give up a wide-open touchdown on the second drive of the day for the Gamecocks, then allowed a field goal on a short field after the Wildcats turned it over on downs on their own 31. That would be the only damage going into USC’s second drive of the third quarter — 10 points allowed through 35 minutes.

Then came the breaking point, a 4th and 1 for South Carolina at the UK 49. In position to take back over on offense and flip a game well within reach down just four points, the Cats jumped offside to gift-wrap the first down conversion. Four plays later, the Cocks were in the end zone to go up 17-6.

Another penalty-filled three-and-out for Kentucky led to a nine-play, 43-yard touchdown drive for South Carolina, followed by a quick pick-six thrown by Brock Vandagriff. The Cats blinked and found themselves down 31-6 and out of the game.

Considering the situation and what it meant the rest of the way, USC coach Shane Beamer was quick to call that offsides penalty among the biggest moments of the game. It swung everything in the Gamecocks’ favor.

“That was huge, absolutely,” Beamer said. “Every play is a big play in this game because it was a low-scoring game, a defensive slugfest. That first half, both teams probably set offensive football back a little bit. It was ugly — they had very few yards, we had like 20 plays. Being able to stay on the field and be aggressive was something we needed to be able to do and it was absolutely a big play. We had worked on it and wanted to see if we could get them to jump, and we were able to.”

As excited as Beamer was to convert there, Kentucky defensive coordinator Brad White was equally frustrated to give it up. Like the Cocks, the Cats had worked on those situational plays, as well. They just couldn’t stay disciplined in that moment, the start of the unraveling for the home team there in the second half.

“We have an opportunity to get off the field on the 4th and short. That’s a situation you just can’t jump offsides. You know they’re going hard count, you’re working on that in practice,” White said. “It’s a big learning lesson for the inside backers. You can’t touch a down defensive lineman because they’re going to be jittery in that moment, you’ve just got to give the call without touching them. We had opportunities. … We’ve got to play better in crucial moments.”

Kentucky struggled in those key moments, but it wasn’t a total loss on that side of the football. In fact, White saw “a lot of good things,” particularly when generating negative plays with three sacks and 12 tackles for loss. The Wildcats were within striking distance until they weren’t — again, with no offensive help whatsoever. And they still gave up just three third-down conversions on ten attempts with 252 total yards of offense allowed.

The top takeaway? Build off the good while erasing the bad.

“We really emphasized with our guys this year that you just don’t know which third down is going to be the one that changes the game, right?” White said. “It stings, you know? It hurts for the guys, but the bottom line is in football, you gotta freaking lick your wounds and come back next week and play again. If you just let this one linger then it’s not going to be any better.”

He’s got to do that himself as a coach, too, holding himself accountable for not calling his best game. The effort has to be there from kickoff to the final buzzer for everyone in that locker room while the staff has to put their players in position to succeed.

That didn’t happen on Saturday with the Gamecocks in town. It’s going to have to happen moving forward to salvage the season.

“The bottom line is we have to strain to the finish. In every situation, strain. We’ll go back and we’ll look at the tape, identify those moments where that did or didn’t occur. We’re not going to shy away from it, we’ll own every one of them,” White said. “We’ve got to coach better. I’ve got to do a better job in those moments. We’ve got to clean this thing up in a hurry.”