Mark Stoops talks decision to punt on crucial 4th and 8 in fourth quarter

Kentucky was in driving position in the fourth quarter, pushing it from its own 16 down to the UGA 47 yard line for a crucial 4th and 8 with 3:03 to go. Down 13-12, you’re just a few yards away from kicking the game-winning field goal, essentially one first down conversion to glory. Fail to convert and you put Georgia in position to run the clock out and solidify the close win.

Mark Stoops‘ choice? Punt, giving the ball to the Bulldogs with just under three minutes to go, hoping his Wildcats would pull off the quick stop on defense to get it back for one last shot. And they did, albeit with just nine ticks remaining on the clock with 80 yards to go to the end zone — way too much to pull off the upset given the circumstances. Brock Vandagriff would convert a 12-yarder to Jordan Dingle, only for the next ball to go five yards to the same target as time expired to solidify the heartbreaking loss.

Would Stoops take back that decision with a do-over? Looking at how close his team was, he wouldn’t, especially considering the key mess-up in his mind came on Georgia’s 33-yard conversion on 2nd and 9 at the UGA 16. Had Kentucky held up there, it was in prime territory to pull off on the upset.

That first down put the Bulldogs in position to run the clock down before giving it back to the Wildcats just a hair too late to do anything of substance. Punting didn’t change that, Stoops says. Of all his regrets in the one-point loss, that isn’t one of them.

“We want to play hard, we want to play physical. You want to run the ball. I’d like to be more balanced, like a lot of people would. That’s a tough defense. I mean, they’re number one in the country for a reason,” Stoops said after the 13-12 loss. “At the end, I don’t regret that. I do regret the one play where they hit the sail. We’ve got to play it better. We’ve got to make that. When I punted it and they got a chance to — shoot, you got, what, over three minutes, then three timeouts and the two-minute stoppage? I mean, we had all kind of time, we’ve just gotta play it better.

“I just didn’t feel like going for it on fourth down. If they punt it and pin us, that’s tough sledding in a predictable pass (situation). For us to go all the way down, I felt like that was going to be no chance if we didn’t get it.”

The one factor that would have changed Stoops’ mind? How far Kentucky had to go on that fourth down. Had it been any closer, he may have considered going for it. 4th and 8 was just too long in that moment of the game, especially with how the defense had been playing up to that point.

It was a risk he just wasn’t willing to take.

“I was 100 percent going for it until we got to fourth and seven,” Stoops said. “Had it been less, absolutely.”