Where was Chris Rodriguez in the second half?

Three-yard gain on 2nd and 24, five-yard gain on 1st and 10, then back-to-back rushes to close out the third quarter for a total of nine yards. Then in the fourth quarter, a seven-yard carry on 1st and 10 and another five-yard rush on 1st and 10 the following drive.

39 plays run in the second half for the Cats, six total carries for Chris Rodriguez.

Six second-half carries for All-SEC running back Chris Rodriguez after finishing with 16 carries and 97 rushing yards in the first half.

The timing was puzzling, too. South Carolina scored to open the second half to go up 14-7, and Kentucky followed it up with three straight passing downs for Kaiya Sheron. The redshirt freshman was sacked on the first play, hit Tayvion Robinson on a quick catch-and-run that went for 27 yards, and then was sacked again on the third — a 14-yard loss.

2nd and 24 from the UK32, called rush for Rodriguez that goes for just three yards to bring up a 3rd and 21 for your inexperienced quarterback making his first career start.

Unsurprisingly, Kentucky punts, leading to a follow-up score for South Carolina to go up 17-7 late in the third.

Still in position to make a comeback, you get four rushes for Rodriguez on the next seven plays — good — to get down to the USC44. And then four passes and one run over the course of the next two drives — bad.

Gamecocks score a touchdown to go up 24-7 with seven minutes to go, and that’s the ballgame.

Does Stoops believe Rodriguez was utilized enough in the loss?

“Well, probably not because the game — you know, just the way the game broke out with the fumble on the first play and just late playing from behind. Probably not,” Stoops said. “I mean, there’s probably some plays that, you know, we got negative yardage plays that we’d like to have over.”

Offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello — like everyone — appreciates a consistent running attack, something that’s infinitely easier with Rodriguez back in the lineup. It doesn’t help, though, when other players and position groups don’t do their jobs.

For better and for worse, that impacts the way Scangarello calls plays.

“The run game really started to show up last week. Obviously, Chris makes a huge difference,” he said. “But once you’re behind, it’s hard to keep going. You like churning out five-, six-yard runs and all that, but you also need to convert on third down to stay out there when you’re playing that way. You’ve got to take care of the football, can’t take sacks, can’t jump for false starts. We false-started twice on the same play call.

“That stuff is just unacceptable. It’s on me and I’m responsible for it, and I have to own it.”

Stoops feels the same way, believing better execution elsewhere would have led to a more consistent run game from start to finish — in both touches and production.

“Well, certainly not the game plan (to get behind the chains),” Stoops said. “When we’re taking sacks and negative yardage plays on the sweep and, you know, just getting behind the chains, I mean, that’s — you know, we can’t live in that world right now. You know, it’s hard. We overcame one screen, guys that were buried on one of them. But in general, it was hard for us to overcome with a redshirt freshman quarterback. We can’t put him in that position. 

“We’ve got to play like you’ve seen us play where we pound the ball, get four yards, five yards, rip off a run and, you know, keep it comfortable. And we didn’t do a very good job at times with that.”

Rodriguez finished the day with 22 carries for 126 yards, good for an average of 5.7 yards per carry.

If only we knew what that total (or the outcome of the game) would be if the star back’s usage rate was higher against the Gamecocks.