Once again Cats Illustrated publisher opened his corner of the Twitterverse for hot takes on Kentucky football, this time after the team's 63-3 loss to Alabama.

Here are some of those takes with commentary that follows.

Easy buy. I can't remember more difficult circumstances for a Kentucky team in my lifetime. I've seen some Kentucky teams much worse than this one but I've never had this feeling of a Kentucky team having zero chance -- literally, zero -- very often.

That's been the story of the season. They came into the year with a rapidly aging offensive philosophy and tried to milk five or six wins out of it and it just wasn't good enough in a league that has gotten more with the times in offense.

Buy. The offense looked really fantastic at least between the 20s for much of the first half. They worked the edge, moved the quarterback around, and worked in some nice rushing plays. Three out of their first four drives got to the Alabama 25 or closer in than that. The problem was in the red zone. I'm not sure I could explain how the play calling changed but I'm guessing Alabama made some adjustments and Kentucky wasn't able to counter.

I think a lot of people probably realized that. But I do think a lot of the players came out with a chip on their shoulders, trying to prove something against the nation's best team. Not sure we are at a point in the season where they would be holding anything back, though.

Buy. It's obviously a little more complicated than that, but I think the issue you're getting at is true. The SEC was late to the offensive arms race but Kentucky has been later than the SEC. Lynn Bowden made the offense look better than it would have otherwise been last year.

Buy. But that's only a suspicion. Several times this year I've asked myself pretty much what you're saying. Stoops has always been the guy who says rushing the ball for even only one more yard than your opponent predicts an 80% win rate in SEC games over X-amount of years. It was his go-to, in order to explain their opting against the sport's trend. This year even when coaches like Nick Saban are saying (wide open) offense wins championships, I'd at least like to think he's finally buying in.

I think it's very fair to say that how Kentucky's offense goes over the next two years will shape a lot when it comes to Mark Stoops' future in Lexington.

That would be an interesting discussion. We're going to find out. Some coaches, like Kirby Smart at UGA, talked about something very different this season, but ended up reverting back to something we've seen from them before. Then again, Nick Saban changed his philosophy. Ed Orgeron did for a year at LSU with Joe Burrow. I don't think Stoops has enough of a track record as a head coach to indicate how open-minded he would be about a wholesale philosophical change.

Definitely buy. There are a lot of things you to do. Recruit uphill selling a new system when they don't see it yet, finding a quality quarterback, rebuilding the offensive line, developing receivers. That's an incremental process, not an overnight one.

The offense has had issues for a while. They've won a lot in spite of it, although the ball control strategy made sense for a while (as long as it worked). Even back in 2018 the 10-3 team had an offense that struggled mightily in games like Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, Tennessee, and Missouri.

This 100% has to be the goal. Show some fight bouncing back in the Swamp. Show that you're not giving up. Beat South Carolina and win a bowl. That doesn't look so bad at the end of the year.

The score is what is disappointing. Not that they were outmanned and even more than they usually would have been. I think people started to get a little excited early and those missed opportunities made it more painful than it would have been if it was just a blowout from the start.

Not to pile on, but I think everyone probably overestimated the talent. It's not the 2018 roster. Quarterback play goes a long way, too.

I thought the special teams had started to perform pretty well before today. Ruffolo was kicking a little better, Duffy was himself, the coverage was okay. When you get into backups in the kicking game it gets dicey right away. But they really had an all-systems fail today that will maybe underscore the need to emphasize that more.

The numbers will continue to decline across the sport but to the point you're getting at, it would take them finishing really strong or convincing people that the offense is going to be a lot more exciting, or sales probably will drag a bit.

I wonder if the playcalling was good for 1.5 quarters and then bad or if they just ran out of things they could throw at 'Bama and once they made adjustments it was game over? I think they're gradually getting the younger guys in there more, but it's a lot to ask guys who are young and hadn't even cut their teeth against mid-majors.

Buy. But how many other teams could we say this about? The vast majority of them.

I don't think he's going to do something like that. Whether he should or shouldn't seems like a fair conversation, but he's somebody who wants to be steady and stick to his process.

They're definitely selling changes but they are not telling guys there are going to be offensive staff changes.

There's probably quite a bit of truth here. Playing that way has made the defense look better. Normally they don't face SEC East offenses like the ones we saw from Ole Miss and Alabama. They also have had a couple of dynamic offensive players in recent years, which they don't have this season. And the rest of the country is catching up to what Kentucky is doing.

I'll agree that playing the game didn't do anything to help the program -- in any respect. Looking at the list of players who were absent, it was a pretty crushing blow to any hopes of being competitive, but it wasn't the kind of absent list that would automatically warrant a cancellation. Clemson had to play Notre Dame without a lot of high level players. Kentucky doesn't have the luxury of having backups like that.

There's something to be said for the staff needing to be willing to give younger guys a chance. Sometimes you don't know what a kid can do until you put him in the situation. However, this isn't really a program that has improved because they have recruited guys who are too good to keep off the field. It has been more of the development path.

They're probably not beating Florida but the South Carolina game could be close.

I'll say the 2018 season was definitely a great moment for the program but I'm definitely on board with the need to revamp the offense. They cannot get to the next level without doing that.

It would not shock me if they are competitive for part of the game. But Florida's offense is on an incredible tear right now and I just think that makes them a different animal than they have been in recent years. They're playing for a spot in the playoffs and are going to be ready.

I thought they had as well. But when you're talking about the team they faced and how many guys were out, that was the perfect storm.

I'm interested in what he could do in a more functioning offense. He's shown some nice glimpses. Not a lot of going up and making difficult, competitive catches, as Stoops would say, but he's been their best option at receiver by a good margin.

There will indeed be several, but I haven't heard anything about a big exodus related to the team's play on the field.

Absolutely and let's not forget that. When we get caught up breaking down wins, losses, and what they mean, it shouldn't overshadow the wild circumstances or devastation these guys have gone through. Still, we do have to break down the games, and it's fair to say the overall results have been disappointing.

Sell. There has been a difference. Neal Brown wanted to run one thing. Shannon Dawson came in and definitely wanted to do his own thing. Eddie Gran appeared poised to run a very Cincinnati-esque offense with Drew Barker. The gradual switch to ground and pound came after the Barker injury about halfway through the Stoops era to date.

The lack of a full schedule definitely changes how this season looks. If they finish 4-4 against the teams they would have faced then 7-5 or 8-4 would look very different than finishing 3-7 or 4-6.

Some truth to that, in some cases. In the case of Michigan, probably so. Nebraska? Definitely. Tennessee? Yep. Penn State is tougher because they're having a season that's bad but hard to explain in the context of what they have been doing recently, and it wouldn't shock me at all if they're back to 10-2 next year.

Agree. As I've said, I think when Saban starts to say defense won't win anymore and is essentially stating that you have to change the old way of doing things, whether or not that influences Stoops it's probably a good bellwether as to what coaches are thinking across the board.

I wouldn't say it was "over" but it dramatically downgraded what was possible, and losing those two games were pretty brutal because you're talking about a pair of first-year coaches during a pandemic year. Flip those outcomes and the 'Cats are at 5-3 probably looking at the Citrus or Outback Bowl.

I get someone feeling that way, I would just frame it a little differently. I'd say it's a wake up call and a reckoning. They've gotten away with doing some things against the trend and this year that was exposed against a more talented schedule, better quarterbacks/offenses, and an all-SEC schedule. The method that worked in recent years stopped working and it stopped abruptly.

They definitely need more players like him who are capable, on a good play or a good day, of making plays against great players. In that sense I agree with what you're saying. He was a Rivals100 talent and that shows up even though he's still pretty inexperienced at the SEC level. I don't think he's their most consistent player but he's been good and could be great next year. It'll be interesting to see what he wants to leave.

Haven't heard about anything being off. But this team has been through a ton, from COVID-19 to Chris Oats and now John Schlarman. It's been a brutal season and I'm sure different players, position rooms, and coaches process that all differently.