Kentucky football: Mark Stoops discusses delays in 2024 opener
Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops talks about the initial 2-hour delay and the delay that took them to Sunday against Southern Miss at Kroger Field.
LEXINGTON — Mark Stoops is one game into his 12th season as the Kentucky football coach. But the Wildcats accomplished something Saturday they’d never done during Stoops’ tenure: post a shutout in a season opener.
In a game plagued by weather delays and called in the third quarter, UK blanked Southern Miss, 31-0, at Kroger Field.
It’s only the second shutout in Stoops’ dozen years in Lexington; the other came by the same score (31-0) against Youngstown State in 2022. Saturday was the first time Kentucky didn’t permit a point in an opener since 2009, when it routed Miami of Ohio, 42-0, in Cincinnati. It had been more than three decades since UK kept an opponent off the board in its home opener, last doing so in a 35-0 trouncing of Kent State in 1993.
The Wildcats aim to keep the good vibes rolling this week.
But it will be a tougher test than what the Golden Eagles posed, as Stoops’ club starts SEC play.
Here are three things to watch heading into the SEC opener versus South Carolina:
Taking over a program in the midst of a rebuild, Stoops struggled in league curtain lifters. He lost his first two SEC openers, and three of his first four. Since then, however, the Wildcats have made a habit of beginning conference play with a 1-0 record. UK has won its opening SEC game five of the last seven years, giving Stoops an on-field record of 6-5. (The 2021 win over Missouri, as with all 10 of UK’s victories that season, were vacated because of NCAA violations.)
To push its on-field streak of SEC-opening wins to four in a row — along with the victory over Missouri three years ago, Kentucky beat Florida in 2022 and Vanderbilt last season — UK will need to turn around the series with South Carolina, which has shifted since Shane Beamer arrived in Columbia, South Carolina.
Stoops’ troops topped USC seven times in an eight-year span from 2014 through 2021. But he’s 0-2 against the Gamecocks since Beamer’s first season in 2022.
On paper, Kentucky’s front seven versus the South Carolina offensive line appears to be a battle of strength versus weakness. The Wildcats’ defensive line and linebacking corps are among the strongest, and deepest, units on the team. The Gamecocks’ offensive line, on the other hand, entered the season as one of the team’s biggest question marks.
USC’s starting five didn’t do much to qwell those doubts in its opener. Narrowly fending off Old Dominion in a 23-19 home victory, the South Carolina offensive line was pushed around by the Conference USA foe Saturday. The Gamecocks averaged just 3.6 yards per carry (kneeling on the ball to end the game knocked down that average to 3.1). The Monarchs also notched four sacks in the loss.
If UK can push around South Carolina’s linemen and bottle up running lanes, it will force the visitors to lean more on the arm of freshman quarterback LaNorris Sellers. That didn’t go well in Sellers’ debut, as he completed just 43.5% (10 for 23) of his passes for 114 yards and no touchdowns.
If all goes according to plan for Kentucky, there won’t be any late-game drama Saturday. By the time the waning moments of the final period arrive, the Wildcats hope to have the game well in hand.
Even if it’s not, if Saturday is decided by the kicking game, the odds should favor the Wildcats.
Alex Raynor made his only field goal try Saturday. He’s made 91.7% (11 for 12) of his field goals since joining Kentucky as a transfer prior to last season. For his college career, which included three seasons (2020-22) at Georgia Southern, Raynor is 56 for 71 (78.9%) on field goals. But he’s been exceptional — close to flawless, in fact — since the beginning of the 2022 campaign: Raynor is 29 for 32 (90.6%) during that span. That stretch includes his record-setting campaign in 2023, when he set a single-season program record for field goal accuracy at 90.91% (11 of 12).
Raynor’s counterpart Saturday is Alex Herrera. Prior to last week, Herrera had never even attempted a field goal in a live game in six seasons as a collegian. He went 3 for 4 in the win over Old Dominion.
While each team will boast advantages in certain areas Saturday, it’s hard to find a wider chasm at one position than the one that exists between Raynor and Herrera.
Brock Vandagriff, Fourth-year Jr., QB: Vandagriff had a fairly stress-free outing in his Kentucky debut, throwing for 159 yards and three touchdowns on 12-for-18 passing (66.7%). He also ran five times for 35 yards.
Ja’Mori Maclin, Fifth-year Jr., WR: Maclin had the game’s longest reception, hauling in a 46-yard pass from Vandagriff. But Maclin had only one other catch, finishing with 66 yards on two receptions. He’ll be looking for far more in the passing game Saturday. The same goes for special teams, where Maclin only went 5 yards on his lone punt-return attempt.
Maxwell Hairston, Fourth-year., DB: Despite starting at cornerback, Hairston wasn’t credited with tallying a single statistic versus Southern Miss. If UK stuffs South Carolina’s running game and forces the visitors to take to the air Saturday, Hairston will smile as he looks to add to his five career interceptions and continue his rise up the program’s record book in that category.
Raheim Sanders, Sr., RB: In his first game as a Gamecock after an intraconference transfer from Arkansas, Sanders paced USC in carries (24) and rushing yards (88) in the triumph over Old Dominion.
Vandrevius Jacobs, Redshirt Fr., WR: A 6-foot, 195-pound Florida native, Jacobs led the Gamecocks with 59 receiving yards (on two receptions) last week, which included a 41-yard catch.
Debo Williams, Fifth-year Sr., LB: A preseason All-SEC second-team selection by the league’s coaches, Williams recorded a team-high seven tackles against the Monarchs. He also recovered a fumble in the three-point win.
Kentucky is an 8 ½-point home favorite against South Carolina, according to the DraftKings college football odds.
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Who: South Carolina (1-0, 0-0 SEC) at Kentucky (1-0, 0-0 SEC)
When: 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7
Where: Kroger Field; Lexington
TV: ABC
Radio: Tom Leach (play-by-play), Jeff Piecoro (analyst) and Dick Gabriel (sideline) will have the UK radio network call on 840 AM in Louisville and both 630 AM and 98.1 FM in Lexington and online at UKAthletics.com.
Streaming: Authenticated subscribers can access ABC via TV-connected devices or by going to WatchESPN.com, the WatchESPN app or ESPN+.
You also can stream ABC on Fubo, which offers a free trial here.
Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.
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Publish date : 2024-09-01 22:11:00
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