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Kentucky Football: 1948 'Cats started slow but built a foundation late


Background: Bear Bryant's third season at Kentucky arrived with much anticipation. The former Maryland coach promptly turned the Wildcat program around in 1946 and followed that up with the program's first bowl game, a win in the only Great Lakes Bowl ever to be played. George Blanda had emerged as the Cats' quarterback and kicker in 1947 and he would return to those roles for the '48 season. While Kentucky had improved as a program, the next goal had to be to improve its SEC fortunes.

Record: 5-3-2 (1-3-1 SEC)

Results

Kentucky 48, Xavier 7 (Lexington)

Ole Miss 20, Kentucky 7 (Lexington)

Georgia 35, Kentucky 12 (Athens)

Vanderbilt 26, Kentucky 7 (Lexington)

Kentucky 25, Marquette 0 (Milwaukee)

Kentucky 28, Cincinnati 7 (Cincinnati)

Kentucky 13, Villanova 13 (Lexington)

Kentucky 34, Florida 15 (Lexington)

Kentucky 0, Tennessee 0 (Knoxville)

Kentucky 25, Miami 5 (Miami)

Rankings: Kentucky was not ranked in the AP top-20 at any point during the 1948 season.

Postseason: N/A

Season Summary: Whatever high hopes fans might have carried into the '48 season with a returning Blanda and coming off the program's first bowl game were dashed early in the campaign with a three-game losing streak to start SEC play and a 1-3 start overall. Not only did Kentucky lose to Ole Miss, Georgia, and Vanderbilt in consecutive weeks, but the offense couldn't muster much of anything in those contests. Those losses assured the 'Cats of a losing record in SEC play for the season.

But all was not lost. Kentucky managed to rebound and go 4-0-2 down the stretch in the last six games of the year.

Kentucky's 0-0 tie against Tennessee in Knoxville was the first time in 13 meetings the Volunteers failed to win the contest. But it continued a long trend of the Wildcats failing to successfully move the ball and score in the series.

On the year the Wildcats defense took a step back but remained respectable, ranked in the top-40 nationally in scoring. But the offense simply wasn't good enough earlier in the year for the team to fulfill expectations.

Because Kentucky rallied to finish the year with a winning record it's not as though one could say the bottom fell out, and the 'Cats would build some optimism for the 1949 season, but the disappointing conference slate was amplified by the fact that Kentucky did not face one ranked opponent all season.

It bears mentioning that Kentucky did face a number of the nation's better defenses.

To this point the Bryant era remained characterized by a team that was more weighted towards defense than offense, one that was successful in non-conference play, but had struggles in the Southeastern Conference.

Perhaps Kentucky was hit hard by the SEC's decision to re-implement freshman eligibility restrictions. Bryant was quoted before the season as saying, "With the Southeastern Conference freshman rule now back in force, we are allowed to play only the men who were eligible last July 1. This simply means we will replace nine first string players with boys who were only good enough last fall to be second, third, and fourth stringers."

The preseason 1948 media guide makes mention of the squad being hit hard by graduation and "academic attrition" from the previous year as well.

Kentucky's offensive line had been a strength but the Wildcats had to replace five guards from the previous season, so the offensive struggles are easy to explain in that light.

Team and Individual Accolades: Kentucky did not rank in the top-10 of any major offensive or defensive statistical categories nor did any individuals for the Wildcats rank among the nation's leaders in traditional statistics.

Wallace "Wah Wah" Jones, a multi-sport star for the Wildcats, would be picked in the seventh round (69th overall) by the Chicago Bears as an end after the season. He was a third team All-SEC selection (after earning first team honors in 1946) but would not play in the NFL. Instead, he would finish another season for Adolph Rupp, winning the program's second national title, before being picked 8th in the BAA draft by the Washington Capitols.

Jones led the Wildcats with 19 receptions, 243 yards and five touchdowns in 1948.

Center Jay Rhodemyre was also picked in the seventh round, by the Green Bay Packers, and end Dick Hensley was selected 106th overall in the 11th by the New York Giants as an end.

Rhodemyre lasted four years with the Packers. Hensley would later be rostered by the Steelers and Bears in the early 1950s.

Kentucky intercepted 18 passes during the '48 season.

Miscellaneous: Kentucky's best win of the season came against Villanova, an independent at the time. While Villanova was unranked when the teams met it would finish 8-2-1 and winners of the Harbor Bowl against Nevada. The two Wildcat teams had met in the Great Lakes Bowl the previous season.

In the offseason after the 1948 season Bryant said, "In my opinion, the display of courage and character by the 1948 team in fighting back after a poor early-season showing will contribute greatly to the morale and spirit of this year's squad and our teams in the future."

Offensively the Wildcats ran entirely out of the T-Formation during the '48 season, just as it had after moving to the system in '47. Kentucky was regarded as having a smaller team that relied on quickness, misdirection and trickery in the running game during these years. But the lack of size evidently did not help at times.

Jerry Claiborne and Babe Parilli were freshmen on the 1948 team.

The enrollment at the University of Kentucky was just 7,000 in 1948.

Nationally: Michigan debuted at No. 7 in the first AP poll but would run the table and eventually beat out Notre Dame for the top spot in the final AP poll. That would be the Wolverines' final unshared national championship through the present day.

SMU running back Doak Walker won the Heisman Trophy beating out Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice from North Carolina.

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