By: LARRY VAUGHT
One of many puzzling decisions made by the Kentucky football coaching staff came when UK didn't call timeout when it only had 10 players on the field before Austin MacGinnis was getting set to kick a field goal. Instead, UK took the 5-yard delay of game penalty and that was about the distance MacGinnis was off on the field goal try.
"I don’t know how we get it corrected because we get injuries and we get guys banged up," Stoops said.
What? How does that keep senior Jordan Swindle from not being on the UK line for the field goal try?
"He got confused for no reason. He saw George (Asafo-Adjei) go in, and he thought he came in for him. George was playing for Kyle (Meadows). And it was tackle over, a little different scenario. I think he was banged up pretty good," Stoops said.
"Jordan is playing his tail off and was hanging on by a thread. Got confused. I decided to let the delay go because I felt like we would need the timeouts at the end of the game, and I felt like the five yards wouldn’t make a difference when in hindsight it did."
Confused? Couldn't a coach have helped?
Oh wait. Kentucky doesn't have a special teams coach.
So how did Vandy manage to pull off the trick play where no one on UK's defense saw a legal receiver lined up on the Vandy sideline and he took the pass and waltzed into the end zone just before halftime to make it 21-10?
"Deception play that we got deceived on. But it was legal. Totally legal," Stoops said. "But they acted like he was going off the field and there was a bunch, there was four on that side and the corner just didn't see it. Corner or the safety just didn't see it."
Apparently a UK coach in the pressbox did. But UK defensive coordinator DJ Eliot said the communication broke down and UK did not get a chance to call tiemout. Again, unbelievable that the communication couldn't be made. How many coaches does it take to communicate a receiver is wide open?
Of course, what set up that play was UK gambling on fourth down and one near midfield down 14-10. But rather than a run, offensive coordinator called for a deep throw down field to Blake Bone that wasn't close to a completion.
On if he's more upset about the 4th and goal decision or the one at midfield:
"If you're gonna give me hindsight, I'd do it over again and kick it in a tight game down there. I'm disappointed in the 4th and 1 at midfield," Stoops said.
Stoops also admitted UK was trying to draw Vandy offsides on the play.
"We were. And then we thought – we had them one on one we thought we could take a shot right there. It was a poor decision. Poor decision. That's all on me," he said.
vBulletin Message