Kentucky football fell to 3-3 on the season and 1-3 in Southeastern Conference play with a 20-13 loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday.
Here’s a look at what the loss means for the rest of the 2024 season.
So much for positive momentum
Losing to a Vanderbilt team that already beat a No. 1-ranked Alabama team should not bring the type of embarrassment losing to the Commodores normally does. Certainly this is not the same situation as when Vanderbilt snapped its 26-game SEC losing streak in Kroger Field two years ago.
But the result still erases almost all the positive vibes this UK team had built since its loss to South Carolina. The loss to South Carolina and win at Ole Miss already proved this is a Kentucky team whose performances can vary widely, but three straight wins at least reignited hope for a special season.
Now, the ceiling looks like seven wins — and Kentucky will probably need an upset or two to match the regular season win total of the last two years. The eight-season bowl streak is in jeopardy again. Losing to Vanderbilt 24 hours after Mark Pope raised the buzz for his first season as Kentucky basketball coach is a major blow to fan support for this team too.
Winning at Florida next week would still be a win that excites UK fans given the Wildcats’ historic futility in that series, but Kentucky will surely be an underdog in that game now. There have been plenty of UK seasons without a win as memorable as the Ole Miss one, but if the high point of this year came in September that will not help this team be remembered fondly.
The home record has to improve
UK coach Mark Stoops had no answer Monday when asked for an explanation of how his team had played better on the road (6-5 in the last 11 SEC games) than at home (2-9 in the 11 SEC home games before Vanderbilt).
“I don’t have a theory on it,” he said. “We’ve played good at home and on the road, and we’ve played bad at home and on the road.”
Fan support does not appear to be the issue as crowds have been good during that stretch. Big Blue Nation even managed to do a respectable job of pulling off a hastily organized “black out” for the Vanderbilt game that was not announced until Thursday.
Regardless of the reason, Stoops has to improve the home performance. There is no easier way to kill fan support than posting disappointing losses at home. Losing to Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee can be excused, but the recent stretch of home futility now includes multiple losses to South Carolina and Vanderbilt.
Kentucky has only one more chance for a home SEC victory this season (Auburn, Oct. 26). Yes, beating archrival Louisville at home in the regular season finale would ease some of the pain, but with the SEC seeming increasingly likely to move to nine conference games in the coming years, Kentucky has to do a better job of defending its home field in league play.
And Stoops has to come up with a way to address the issue.
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