What Kentucky football’s loss to Ole Miss means for rest of 2022 season
No. 7 Kentucky football fell to 4-1 on the 2022 season with a 22-19 loss at No. 14 Ole Miss on Saturday.
Here is a closer look at what the defeat means beyond the scoreboard.
A BLOW TO 2022 MOMENTUM
Despite the higher ranking, Las Vegas odds-makers established Kentucky as an underdog in the hostile SEC road environment. A loss then is certainly not the type of blow that eliminates the Wildcats from having a special season, but it does throw into the spotlight some issues that were apparent but overcome in the 4-0 September.
With the loss, Kentucky now falls behind Georgia and Tennessee, which was off this weekend, in the SEC East race. Kentucky still controls its own destiny in the division race, but that scenario involves running the table with wins over both the Bulldogs and Volunteers.
The fact that Ole Miss found such success against Kentucky’s defense with its high-tempo offense also adds worries to the Oct. 29 match with Tennessee. The Volunteers run a similar scheme and torched Kentucky for 461 yards in a 45-42 win a year ago.
Kentucky can’t wait for the Tennessee matchup to address its issues, either. If the concerns exposed in Oxford linger, the Wildcats could lose either of the next two home games to South Carolina and Mississippi State. Do that, and dreams of a division title or New Year’s Six bowl berth are already dead.
A WORRYING STREAK FOR FUTURE SEC SCHEDULE
Kentucky’s losing streak in road games versus the SEC West reached 15 games with Saturday’s defeat. Kentucky is now 0-11 in such games in the Mark Stoops era.
Under the current schedule format, the streak is concerning, but not nearly as worrying as it will be if the SEC does away with divisions as expected when Oklahoma and Texas join the league. Kentucky is now 5-15 against the West Division in the Stoops era. Three of those wins have come against Mississippi State.
The most popular future SEC schedule format appears to be a nine-game schedule in which each team has three permanent opponents. The other six games would rotate each year, allowing each team to play every team in the league home and away over a four-year period. That means more games against the current West teams are almost certainly coming for UK.
Until Stoops and company prove they can win on the road against the other division, the narrative that some of the Wildcats’ recent success has been boosted by playing a weaker schedule will persist. That narrative could hold implications for how UK is ranked this season, too. The Wildcats need to be ranked ahead of at least two of Ole Miss, Arkansas and Texas A&M to have a realistic chance at a New Year’s Six bowl.
NATION’S SECOND-LONGEST WINNING STREAK SNAPPED
Kentucky entered the game having won eight straight dating back to 2021. Only Clemson (10) was on a longer winning streak.
The eight consecutive wins marked just the sixth time in program history UK had won that many games in a row. The loss prevented UK from recording just the 14th 5-0 start to a season in program history.
Now the test for Kentucky is to see if its veteran leaders can prevent one loss into spiraling into multiple defeats. A year ago, the Wildcats won their first six games before losing at Georgia in an ESPN “College GameDay” matchup. That defeat started a three-game losing streak that dropped Kentucky out of the top 25.
UK should be favored at home next week against South Carolina, but unless the pass protection and special teams miscues from Oxford are corrected quickly, the nation’s second-longest winning streak could quickly turn into a season-crushing losing streak.
