What if I told you the main criticism of Mark Stoops is completely backward?

A segment of increasingly frustrated Kentucky football fans sees Mark Stoops as “too conservative” to lead UK to the proverbial “next level.”

At least some Wildcats backers long for the wild and woolly entertainment of the Wildcats’ “Air Raid” era and are exasperated that Stoops has not embraced a more pass-happy approach.

Well, what if I told you that the biggest problem, consistently, with Kentucky’s game management in the Stoops era has been too much risk taking and not enough prudence.

What if I also told you that the coaching decision Stoops and his staff made late in Saturday night’s agonizing 13-12 defeat to then-No. 1 Georgia that is most deserving of second guessing was not the controversial call to punt on fourth-and-8 from the Georgia 47 with 2:58 left in the game.

Actually, UK’s chances of knocking off Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs for what would have been the greatest upset in school history were compromised on the two plays prior to the punt — when the Wildcats chose to pass when they should have run the ball.

On a night when Kentucky ran for 212 yards on the Georgia defense (with 42 yards given up on three quarterback sacks subsequently subtracted) and in a season where UK “pass protection” has, so far, been a bit of an oxymoron, the Cats should have kept the ball on the ground on second-and-8.

Instead, a Brock Vandagriff pass intended for Anthony Brown-Stephens fell incomplete.

Now facing a third-and-8, Kentucky had little choice but to try to throw. Under pressure from Georgia’s Jalon Walker, Vandagriff’s throw was batted down.

At Stoops’ weekly news conference Monday at Kroger Field, I asked the UK coach if, in retrospect, he wishes the Cats had kept running the ball on that fateful series.

“I do, I do,” Stoops said. “ ... In hindsight, what if we had grinded it out there and got it to a manageable third down, a manageable fourth? We were extremely efficient on third-and-short and third-and-medium” against the Georgia defense.

Though it runs contrary to the prevailing narrative, I would say not being conservative enough on that sequence of play calls cost Kentucky its best chance at what would have been a monumental victory.

Stoops’ decision to punt in Georgia territory while down one point in the final minutes has reinforced his image for employing an overly careful approach to in-game decision making.

That reputation is fascinating because, from the start of the Stoops era in 2013 until now, most of the game-management calls that have blown up on Kentucky have come from assuming too much risk.

To list just three examples (in reverse order):

▪ 2024: Down 7-0 to South Carolina in the second quarter, Stoops had Kentucky go for it on fourth-and-1 from its own 31-yard line. The Gamecocks defense stuffed Vandagriff on a quarterback sneak for no gain.

Six plays later, South Carolina turned Stoops’ “go for it” decision into a field goal en route to a 31-6 victory.

▪ 2019: Leading Louisville 17-6 late in the first half and facing a fourth-and-1 from the Cardinals’ 43, UK went for the first down. The Louisville defense threw Lynn Bowden for a 1-yard loss with 3:23 left before halftime.

Two plays later, Javian Hawkins ran 56 yards for a U of L touchdown.

As it was, U of L would not score again and the Cardinals had no second-half answer for the rushing of Bowden and lost 45-13.

But the failed fourth-down gamble by Stoops and the U of L TD that ensued just before halftime risked flipping momentum in a game Kentucky otherwise had under control.

▪ 2015: Down 14-10 at Vanderbilt with just more than a minute left in the first half, Kentucky went for it on fourth-and-1 from Vandy 49-yard line.

It was a confounding decision in real time because, after Kentucky had failed on a midfield fourth-and-1 the prior week in a loss at Georgia, Stoops had sworn off short-yardage risks on fourth down.

Needing 1 yard to prevent giving Vanderbilt a short-field scoring chance, UK inexplicably called a “shot play” and tried to hit wideout Blake Bone on a deep throw down the sideline.

That risky bet failed.

Four plays later, the Commodores scored on a 34-yard touchdown pass on a “hidden end” trick play.

Kentucky went on to lose 21-17.

That loss cost the 2015 Cats — who would finish at 5-7 — bowl eligibility.

Conversely, other than Kentucky’s come-from-ahead 28-27 loss to Florida in 2017, when the Wildcats’ play calling got risk-averse as UK “sat on” a double-digit fourth-quarter lead, I don’t remember excess conservatism in game management costing the Cats any other win under Stoops.

As for Saturday’s one-point loss to Georgia, this is one case in which I wish Stoops put his chips all in and had Kentucky go for it on fourth-and-8 from the Dawgs’ 47.

Even with that, it was the lack of conservatism in not running the ball on the two plays that led up to the widely second-guessed punt that forms the more debatable coaching decision.

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