Each week Cats Illustrated publisher Justin Rowland asks for your hot takes on Kentucky football after the team's latest action.
This week's takes follow a surprisingly close win against Chattanooga with a road game against South Carolina on the horizon...
Buy. I don't think any of us know just how good this Kentucky team is but they're 3-0. Before the season that's what everyone was hoping for but it wasn't a given because the game against Mizzou was believed to be one of the closest of the year on paper. Before this game I even mentioned, only half jokingly, that you're better off sleepwalking a time or two against the worst opponents on your schedule because no team plays its "A-game" every single week. If they play very sloppy again on the road this weekend that will be somewhat concerning and probably not a good sign for that three-game brutal stretch.
Sell, kind of. I wouldn't let that one game swing an opinion so much this early in the season, especially with it being an FCS opponent the week after a win that everyone was looking forward to. This was the toughest game for UK to get motivated for since 2019 and it seems like the whole mentality was about working on things for later games. Chattanooga played like it was their Super Bowl. Maybe UK finishes 7-5 but I had them at 9-3. Not sure if they get there but my opinion has not really changed.
Buy. Although I will say on the offensive line, they're doing a lot more now than they've done in the past. They might be judged more harshly now, but what they're doing with the linemen is a change from the past and it's more on their plate.
The defensive line would be one of my bigger concerns because there has been way too much running room. Oxendine has done some positive things this year and that's got to be encouraging. McCall has to play at a higher level.
Buy. To be fair, they haven't really played a fully crisp, clean game to this point so I think some are concerned because they can't tell whether this team is just getting warmed up, with a really great product still to come, or if they're going to be rough around the edges making it difficult all season. But the important thing is being 3-0.
Sell, if you mean they're going to turn on Kentucky. Louisville isn't much competition to Kentucky recruiting in-state right now and I don't see that changing even though the Cards had a nice win and Kentucky struggled. I'm not even sure Satterfield and his staff are planning on doubling down much locally right now.
I'll agree that "mistakes" have been a theme early this year but the good thing is they are also a lot more explosive and have much more margin for error to deal with mistakes now than they did in the past. And also, Nick Saban harps about mistakes every week as well. It's not the same thing but it's also not strange for me to hear coaches hammer home the same themes.
Buy. But I'm not ready to say this group can't still have a solid season. I'll be interested in seeing if they give Hayes more time at nose or if McCall takes last week as a wake-up call and takes it to another level. They've been talking him up for a long time and fans have to hope that he plays well at South Carolina. If he does that changes the forecast back in a positive direction. Hayes, Rybka, and Oxendine have had some hopeful moments but agreed.
I'm going back and watching a couple of times shortly so I can't speak to the play-calling quite yet. The line of scrimmage issue is the No. 1 thing, other than turnover margin, that they need to clean up in my book. That was supposed to be a strength this year and so far it has been up and down. Opening it up has been exciting to see. The line's play against Missouri makes me believe they can get it straightened out and have a great year for the offensive line.
As for the secondary, I'll agree that conservative play has been exploited the last couple of weeks but that's just who they are. They faced two offenses that executed really well. UK is going to keep giving that stuff. The positive is they're again at the top of the country in terms of big passing plays allowed.
Well said. If they lose to South Carolina then we will look back and find all the problems that should have told us it was coming. If they win, this game was an afterthought.
I thought Wright had a really good season opener. If he can play at the level he was at against ULM then it will definitely make the defense better.
Buy. The reason I'm not reading too much into it is you could just tell the "showing up" thing was a factor. There were moments when Chattanooga ball-carriers were running like you saw Kentucky run against Missouri or against Mississippi State back in 2018 while UK was trying to strip the ball or didn't have the same intensity. That makes me think it was almost all about motivation.
Buy. I do think part of what we saw was a team that was coming into a week "working on" parts of the offense that it wanted to develop before the schedule got more difficult. Nothing wrong with that and in fact I'm all for it. But that's a different mindset than working towards a beatdown no matter how you can get it.
Too early for me to say that. If they're 4-0 overall and 2-0 in the SEC after this week then they will have won what was close to a 50/50 game against Missouri and a road game against a division opponent. It will just be about how they fare in the next month.
Not sure how many people are overreacting but I'm buying the point you're making. They had a closer than expected game against an FCS team after a big emotional win. Plenty of room for improvement but I'll judge them after the South Carolina game.
They really did execute very well. I was critical of their decision to punt the ball from about midfield on 4th and short before halftime, thinking they were squandering an opportunity on the road as a huge "nothing to lose" underdog but they correctly apprehended that this was a game where they were just more plugged in and executing better.
They have played a couple of teams that are apparently pretty comfortable doing just that. It's their wheelhouse. Tennessee and Mississippi State were not content to do that last year and it resulted in nine interceptions.
Buy, especially the part about the deep balls. There were about three slight overthrows in quick succession and Levis hasn't missed on those this year. He wasn't very far off on those either. Even just hitting on one or two of them might have set a different course for the game. There's no reason for me to believe he's going to struggle on those passes for most of the season.
Sell on Paschal. I think he's a very good player. He's always in good pursuit of the ball, shows up every down, and has a great motor. If he were a couple of inches taller it would probably help but he hasn't been their issue. He's a good SEC defensive lineman.
Can't really argue with any of your takeaways there. I think you make a good point about the passing game. I have no problem with them working on it and trying to improve in a real game setting but using the run to set up the play action throw helped them a lot in weeks one and two.
I can't tell if folks are being serious with the Eddie Gran stuff. He was announced to be returning "in a different role" as a personal assistant to Stoops who is not going to be setting a game plan or coaching players on the field.
Being fair, I can imagine there may have been some offensive players who were tired of the old system and were ready for a change. Maybe they hated what the offense had become. But I have a hard time believing they would be demoralized or distracted by news of Gran returning to help Stoops.
I don't think most people are able to really tell what adjustments are being made because often they're subtle changes that you might not see from the view you're getting on television. In real time most of us are watching the ball, or at the very least we're only able to watch a few players at a time.
There are definite clunkers against lesser opponents but what is Stoops' streak against non-conference opponents now? I don't see this as a major concern.
This is a very fair perspective. The focus and prep is my question, going into the Chattanooga game at least. I don't really have big issues with this team's offensive potential. Fair to wonder if the defense is going to be good enough to beat Florida or LSU because of the way the defensive line has played and the lack of depth at corner.
That's how I felt. Not as a matter of superstition but now the coaches will really have their attention. If anybody's response to that is, "Well they should already have it," then okay, but every team plays less than its best at times.
Don't see them losing to South Carolina so I'll agree.
I think the offensive line has had growing pains but we saw what they are capable of against Missouri. They really dominated that game. So you know they have it in them. They've also given Levis some really good protection to make deep throws at times. I think the left tackle play can improve but there's plenty of talent there.
