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In a year, Kentucky was projected to finish second in the SEC, behind defending national champion Georgia, and had the third highest odds of winning the conference behind the Bulldogs. Nick Saban‘s Alabama Crimson Tide, the Wildcats leveled off.
The Cats lost to South Carolina at home for the first time since 2012 and to Vanderbilt for the first time since 2016, with the Commodores breaking their 26-game SEC losing streak, their 20-game non-conference winning streak and 4-game bowl winning streak ending at the Music City Bowl. suffered an embarrassing 21–0 loss to Iowa at .
What went wrong for the Wildcats other than the obvious offensive answer to their poor season? Clues can be found as early as week one.
Kentucky entered halftime with a 13-10 lead against Miami, Ohio, at home in the season opener. Britain put together a big second half and he won 37-13, Mark Stoops He wasn’t all that happy with the energy level of his team.
“We have to be ourselves and play with energy. We have to play with enthusiasm,” Stoops said after the game. “It shouldn’t be up to other people to decide how we play.”
Great Britain rebounded to beat No. 12 Florida in Gainesville, then defeated Youngstown State and Northern Illinois to start the season 4-0 and move up to No. 7 in the AP voting.
However, a penalty in Ole Miss saw the game-winning touchdown cleared off the board, and a misfired performance with a loss. Will Levis A game against South Carolina dampened early momentum, and the team never fully recovered, going 3-6 in their final nine games.
After their first shutout loss in Nashville since 2019, Stoops took time and accountability to deal with a year in which his team simply failed to live up to expectations.
“Obviously, this year things have been a little off at times,” Stoops said. “I’ve told the players this. I say it’s my responsibility. I have to fix it to regain who we are.”
Stoops wasn’t the only one to find his team out of shape this season.
senior linebacker jack jones He also saw a lack of energy as he was forced to miss five games due to injury.
“I was on the sidelines because of an injury for most of the season, so I could definitely feel that some of the energy wasn’t there,” Jones said after the Music City Bowl. Bringing that energy to and being on the sidelines, this is hard for me…’You can’t help the guys on the field. I feel I can’t do it.
The drop in energy levels for 2022 is something Stoops has acknowledged that needs to be addressed this offseason, something that has already had some moves and is nearing formalization, paving the way for improvement. Useful for jump starting.
Kentucky’s offensive and special teams units beat the top 20 defenses almost the entire season.not yet formally rehired Liam Cohenin the attack coordinator, Jay Ballware Hiring as a Special Teams Coordinator may breathe new life into those units.
“Bringing in a coordinator who I believe will be on the attacking side of the ball will help,” Stoops said of Cohen’s potential hire. rice field.
“We have to turn the tables,” Stoops added of the addition of Ballware. “There were games this year where we got core four hidden yards, but it wasn’t enough. I did, and I did.”
Only time will tell what the 2023 Wildcats story will be, but the 2022 Wildcats legacy will be a team with a lot of talent and a lot of hype around it, but for some reason I don’t think I clicked on it.
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