In 2022, Mark Stoops has run up on an enduring challenge of coaching football at UK

Early in the 2008 Kentucky football season, then-Wildcats coach Rich Brooks was ruminating in his weekly news conference on one of the challenges of coaching at UK.

The prior year, Kentucky had beaten two top-10 teams, including eventual national champion LSU, behind an Andre Woodson-directed offense that was one of the best in Wildcats football history.

For 2008, the Wildcats were winning with a stout defense that was carrying an inexperienced offensive unit that had been gutted by graduation and injuries.

A media member asked Brooks if he wished he could have coached a team that featured UK’s 2007 offense with its 2008 defense. Ever forthright, Brooks said yes, but he then pointed out that one of the primary challenges of coaching at Kentucky is that it is difficult to recruit consistently enough to have all units of your team performing at a high level at the same time.

I’ve thought about that exchange a lot in watching the 2022 UK season, one that began with sky-high expectations but is teetering close to the “disappointing-season zone” following Saturday’s disastrous 44-6 loss at then-No. 3 Tennessee.

What was supposed to differentiate the 2022 Cats from previous editions is a cannon-armed quarterback in Will Levis and a group of dynamic wide receivers thought to be the most talented unit Kentucky has fielded since Woodson was throwing to Keenan Burton, Steve Johnson and Dicky Lyons Jr. in 2007.

However, Kentucky’s consistent struggles in pass protection in 2022 have essentially negated the Wildcats’ ability to drive the football down the field in the passing game.

What makes that an acutely frustrating development for those with an emotional investment in UK football is that rock-solid offensive line play had been the foundation of the Mark Stoops-era ascension in Kentucky’s fortunes. “The Big Blue Wall” had, essentially, stood strong since 2016.

Yet, this year, when UK, on paper, finally has the tools to unleash the horizontal passing game that has been, largely, missing from Kentucky offenses since 2016, the Cats struggle to pass protect well enough to take advantage.

Under Stoops, Kentucky has recruited at a consistently higher level than at any point in its 21st century history. Nevertheless, the phenomenon Brooks spoke about in 2008 — the challenge at UK of having simultaneous, high-level performance from multiple units — has again reared its head in a way that has really bitten the 2022 Cats.

On Nov. 6, 2021, Kentucky and Tennessee played to a 45-42 UT win over UK in Lexington. That was the proverbial game “that could have gone either way” and one that much of the Big Blue Nation felt like the Wildcats should have won.

The difference from that 2021 game to what we watched in Knoxville on Saturday night was monumental. Obviously, second-year Tennessee coach Josh Heupel has done a whole lot better job with his program in the 51 weeks between the two most recent UK-UT games than has been done at Kentucky.

What’s going to be interesting to watch is what the UK mindset will be going into the back end of a schedule that looks far more challenging now than it did in the preseason.

At this point, the only way to do something “special” — which was the standard for 2022 among much of the Kentucky fan base — would be to upset No. 1 Georgia in Lexington on Nov. 19. Given what we saw from UK at Tennessee, that seems like a pipe dream, though there is some history in the Kirby Smart coaching era of the Bulldogs occasionally turning in a random road clunker.

This Saturday’s contest at Missouri is going to be a major test for UK. The Tigers play a penetrating defensive system designed to create negative plays. Those are the kinds of defenses that have given Kentucky fits this season.

Mizzou (4-4, 2-3 SEC) also considers UK (5-3, 2-3 SEC) one of its biggest SEC rivals. Given the way Missouri’s schedule sets up, the Tigers likely must beat either Kentucky or Arkansas to eventually gain bowl eligibility.

Vanderbilt (3-5, 0-4) will take a 25-game SEC losing streak into this Saturday’s game with South Carolina. If UK fails to win at Mizzou on Saturday, the Cats would be playing for bowl-eligibility when the Commodores come to Lexington on Nov. 12.

Coming off a 48-21 strafing of then-No. 10 Wake Forest, Louisville (5-3, 3-3 ACC) is putting up a rousing fight to save the job of noted Saint Peter’s basketball fan Scott Satterfield.

What has separated UK from U of L during the Wildcats’ current three-game win streak in the intrastate rivalry is pronounced superiority in the trenches. This year, the Cardinals defense is eighth in the country in tackles for loss (averaging 7.9 a game), while Kentucky is 106th in tackles for loss allowed (6.75 a game).

When the Cards call on the Cats on Nov. 26, Kentucky might need to find a different recipe if it is going to retain the Governor’s Cup trophy for another year.

After what was a demoralizing visit to Knoxville, how much “bounce back” is left in the Cats? We are about to watch another test of the culture Stoops has built inside the Kentucky football program.