Three takeaways from Kentucky football’s loss to Tennessee in Knoxville

Three takeaways from Kentucky’s 28-18 loss to Tennessee on Saturday night at Neyland Stadium:

1. Kentucky showed grit in defeat

Let’s be real here. Mark Stoops’ Wildcats entered Big Orange County mired in a three-game losing streak. They were missing 13 players. Anywhere from seven to 10 of those were starters. One was top pass rusher J.J. Weaver. Another was veteran linebacker D’Eryk Jackson. Another was All-SEC cornerback Maxwell Hairston. Little wonder seventh-ranked Tennessee was a comfortable 17.5-point favorite.

And yet, Kentucky actually led 10-7 at halftime. A rare feat indeed. It was just the second time since 2006 that the Cats had led the Vols at intermission on UT’s home field. Jamarion Wilcox’s 50-yard run on UK’s first play from scrimmage set the tone. Brock Vandagriff played tough. The defense got some stops. Tennessee was missing field goals, three on the night.

Coming into the game, you thought this could turn ugly, but starting the second half you thought, hey, maybe Kentucky could actually win this thing.

That wasn’t to be, of course. Tennessee’s offense began to find its footing after the break. Kentucky’s youth started to show in its depleted secondary. Vandagriff left the game with a head injury. Backup Gavin Wimsatt threw a costly interception — though Wimsatt did chase down and tackle the Vols’ Will Brooks after a 67-yard return.

“Not the outcome that we were looking for, at all,” Stoops said after his team fell to 3-6 overall and 1-6 in the SEC. “But I really do appreciate the toughness that our team displayed in preparation throughout this week and coming in here and really playing really tough. We played winning football in a lot of game and in certain areas we didn’t. Credit (Tennessee). They are a very good team. We knew it was going to be very challenging, but our team was up to it.”

That’s at least something.

2. Kentucky’s offense was better, but still not good enough

Up against a Tennessee defense that had not allowed more than 19 points in a game all season, Kentucky gained 360 yards. It rushed for rushed for 168 and passed for 192. It got a much sought after explosive run from the redshirt freshman Wilcox and a pair of touchdown passes — Vandagriff to Josh Kattus for a 27-yard score in the first half and Wimsatt to Ja’Mori Maclin for a 32-yard touchdown in the second. (Maclin made a great catch in the end zone despite blanket coverage.)

Still, it wasn’t enough. Too many false start penalties. The Cats failed to execute on a fourth-and-2 at the Tennessee 5-yard line early in the game. (“I thought we needed the points,” Stoops said of his decision to go for it.) Vandagriff fumbled the ball away on a strip sack. There were too many false start penalties. Pass protection was spotty. There was Wimsatt throwing that interception when Kentucky was driving.

“All I can think about again is self-inflicted wounds,” offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan said. “I think that’s the hardest part of everything.”

There were some positives. Wilcox finished with 102 yards on 17 carries — the first UK back to rush for 100 yards this season. Before leaving the game with a head injury in the second half, Vandagriff was 10-of-17 passing for 123 yards.

“I thought he was playing well,” Stoops of Vandagriff before the injury. “Tough environment, tough defense, I thought he was doing some really good things.”

Still, Kentucky remains the only team in the SEC that has not scored more than 20 points in a conference game.

3. The season is down to three games

Fresh off a 20-17 win at Ole Miss on Sept. 28, we thought it was a good time for Kentucky to have a bye week. We were wrong. The Cats haven’t won since.

Now, in the middle of a four-game losing streak, Stoops’ squad has its second and final bye week of the season. Surely this is a good time. There’s the losing streak. There’s all those injuries, the hope being that the second break will afford time for at least some players to heal for the final three games.

To extend their consecutive bowl streak to nine straight seasons, the Cats have to win all three of those games. Murray State comes to Kroger Field on Nov. 16. After that, it gets much, much tougher, however. UK visits No. 6 Texas on Nov. 23. Louisville visits Lexington on Nov. 30. The Cardinals whipped No. 11 Clemson 33-21 at Clemson on Saturday night.

Only an eternal optimist would predict Kentucky victories in all three. But at least UK showed some fight Saturday night. Against the odds, the Cats were in the game practically to the end. Even when Tennessee scored a pair of touchdowns for a 21-10 lead, the visitors cut it to 21-18 before the Vols scored with 4:55 left to put the game away.

Somehow, the Cats have to find a way to carry that fight into the final three regular-season games of 2024. It’s their only chance.

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