Mark Stoops doesn't "have much to say" after Kentucky repeats mistakes

You’ve seen this before, just in a slightly different manner. It’s Groundhog Day for Kentucky football fans who continue to watch the Wildcats play piss-poor offense.

As the calendar turns to November, Mark Stoops’ football team still has not scored more than 20 points against an SEC opponent. They took a two-possession lead for the first time against a conference foe, yet they could not hold onto that lead for a full half as the Wildcats only gained 109 yards of offense over the final three quarters of a 24-10 loss to Auburn.

Kentucky tried to change things up. Gavin Wimsatt‘s number was called, replacing Brock Vandagriff. A couple of injuries forced the Cats to play two freshmen at running back. There were a couple of nice runs, but Jason Patterson and Jamarion Wilcox only gained 63 yards. It did not matter who was in the game, Kentucky made the same mistakes that have plagued them all season long.

“I really don’t have much to say. Just hit the repeat button,” Mark Stoops opened with in his postgame press conference.

“I think you all get tired of hearing the same thing, but it’s more of the same. Need to finish drives, need to get in the end zone, need to play better in each phase of the game. We just got beat. Bottom line, we got beat. Didn’t play good enough in any phase to win, and that’s discouraging.”

Even though offensive ineptitude will dominate the conversation around Big Blue Nation, the defense wasn’t much better either. After containing Auburn to only 38 first quarter yards, over the final three periods the Tigers rolled to 460 yards and 24 unanswered points. Running back Jarquez Hunter barreled through defenders for 278 yards (12.1 yards per carry) and two touchdowns.

As bad as it felt at times, Auburn left points off the scoreboard. A J.J. Weaver sack at the end of the half and a penalty on third and long eliminated six points for the Tigers. Kentucky only trailed by seven points at the start of the fourth quarter.

That’s around the time when the offense stepped in and did what it has done now for three straight weeks. The Wildcats got the football down to the 2-yard line and scored zero points.

“We got to look at what we’re doing. We’re going to look at how we’re playing. We got to look at all options,” said Stoops.

“I mean, you can’t point fingers. We’ve got to find some solutions, clearly. It’s very frustrating. There’s no excuses. There’s nothing I’m going to say that’s the right answer. We got to do a better job.”

There are no excuses and there are no answers to solve the problems consistently plaguing the Kentucky offense.

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