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  • Puzzling decisions and confusion mark loss to Vanderbilt

    by
    Darrell KSR
    Published on 11-17-2015 11:14 AM
    1 Comment Comments
    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.
    1. Categories:
    2. Football
    Comments 19 Comments
    1. KSRBEvans's Avatar
      KSRBEvans - 11-17-2015, 02:03 PM
      HC and coordinators all doing OJT in the SEC.
    1. snoopcat's Avatar
      snoopcat - 11-17-2015, 02:12 PM
      Stoops comments never cease to amaze me. These comments and the fact he generally looks stupid and make stupid decisions on the sidelines tells me he is in over his head.

      I hope he grows into a good head coach but nobody can convince me now that he knows what he is doing.
    1. KSRBEvans's Avatar
      KSRBEvans - 11-17-2015, 02:36 PM
      There was an absolutely goofy play call a couple of weeks ago--maybe an onside kick or fake?--and the comment after the game was, "Well, no one would be complaining if it worked."

      Which was about the stupidest defense ever.

      Now whenever some play call blows up, like the bomb on 4th and 1, I automatically imagine one of the UK staff saying, "Well, no one would be complaining if it worked."
    1. dan_bgblue's Avatar
      dan_bgblue - 11-17-2015, 03:25 PM
      IIRC Coach said that the play had not been called from the sidelines. It was supposed to be a normal kick off but the kicker miss hit it and it popped up and went about 25 yards falling into an empty spot and UK recovered. Unfortunately for UK they had two players ruled as being off sides on the kick off and the Cats had to do it all over again but without the unintended pooch kick. Also IIRC the kick off was returned to about the opponents 45 or so.

      Is that the play you are talking about? And you have the comments from Coach correct minus the part about it not being a called play.
    1. Doc's Avatar
      Doc - 11-17-2015, 04:00 PM
      Glad to see Larry write something so critical.
    1. KSRBEvans's Avatar
      KSRBEvans - 11-17-2015, 04:49 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by dan_bgblue View Post
      IIRC Coach said that the play had not been called from the sidelines. It was supposed to be a normal kick off but the kicker miss hit it and it popped up and went about 25 yards falling into an empty spot and UK recovered. Unfortunately for UK they had two players ruled as being off sides on the kick off and the Cats had to do it all over again but without the unintended pooch kick. Also IIRC the kick off was returned to about the opponents 45 or so.

      Is that the play you are talking about? And you have the comments from Coach correct minus the part about it not being a called play.
      OK, went back & checked my tweets because I tweeted about it after the game, and it wasn't a special teams play. It was in the Auburn game when they were down to Auburn inside a minute to play with either 0 or 1 TO and inexplicably called a draw play. The "no one would be complaining if it had worked" was the post-game response.

      That was also the game where Auburn was punting and UK had 8 men on the field. Didn't bite them, but very well could (and some might argue should) have. I think I somehow mixed up the 2 situations in my head.
    1. dan_bgblue's Avatar
      dan_bgblue - 11-17-2015, 05:00 PM
      Easy to get a bit confused as there have been to many examples this season to try an remember them individually
    1. catmanjack's Avatar
      catmanjack - 11-17-2015, 05:17 PM
      Wow is all I can say, joker remake here not good at all!
    1. MickintheHam's Avatar
      MickintheHam - 11-17-2015, 05:45 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by snoopcat View Post
      Stoops comments never cease to amaze me. These comments and the fact he generally looks stupid and make stupid decisions on the sidelines tells me he is in over his head.

      I hope he grows into a good head coach but nobody can convince me now that he knows what he is doing.


      I'll ask Terry Blue to send you a pm. Afew unvetted words of wisdom might change your mind.
    1. MickintheHam's Avatar
      MickintheHam - 11-17-2015, 05:47 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by Doc View Post
      Glad to see Larry write something so critical.
      Larry tends to be the most straight up guys covering UK football and basketball. His blog is out there in all of its glory.
    1. ETWNAPPEL's Avatar
      ETWNAPPEL - 11-17-2015, 05:50 PM
      This just cements my grief even further. His answers to questions are even worse than I assumed happened. Is it safe to hope he will grow into the job?
    1. jazyd's Avatar
      jazyd - 11-17-2015, 05:56 PM
      I hate even reading this stuff, glad it is all about over for the year. I wonder if Stoops ever reads the stuff he actually says. At some point he needs to just shut up, say no comment or hasn't dissected the film yet but this stuff is beyond confusion, it just sounds like a stupid person who has no business being a head coach. I cannot imagine what the players think or even some of his asst coaches.
    1. Catonahottinroof's Avatar
      Catonahottinroof - 11-17-2015, 06:19 PM
      Coach Stoops is cut from good cloth. Nothing can change the fact that this is his first HC job. These stumbles are expected. The problem to me is he doesn't seem to have learned from the prior 2 years and that makes him no different than the prior staff.

      Quote Originally Posted by KSRBEvans View Post
      HC and coordinators all doing OJT in the SEC.
    1. catmanjack's Avatar
      catmanjack - 11-17-2015, 07:38 PM
      I think the SEC is a bad league to try and grow into a coaching job.
    1. dan_bgblue's Avatar
      dan_bgblue - 11-17-2015, 08:05 PM
      The SEC regularly chews up rookies and spits them out
    1. catmanjack's Avatar
      catmanjack - 11-17-2015, 09:13 PM
      SEC is hard on a lot of coaches, there is so much money in college football you have
      to win.
      I think of Auburn they win$ a championship and three years later fire their coach and Gus will get canned in a couple years.
    1. jazyd's Avatar
      jazyd - 11-18-2015, 12:14 AM
      Quote Originally Posted by dan_bgblue View Post
      The SEC regularly chews up rookies and spits them out
      Mullens and Freeze did pretty good. Richt has done well averaging 9 wins a year., as much as I dislike Franklin he did very well. Mac at UF has the same amount of time as a HC as Stoops
    1. MickintheHam's Avatar
      MickintheHam - 11-18-2015, 07:53 AM
      Quote Originally Posted by jazyd View Post
      Mullens and Freeze did pretty good. Richt has done well averaging 9 wins a year., as much as I dislike Franklin he did very well. Mac at UF has the same amount of time as a HC as Stoops
      Actually McElwain has one more year as HC than Stoops.
    1. ajp40505's Avatar
      ajp40505 - 11-18-2015, 09:21 AM
      Quote Originally Posted by snoopcat View Post
      Stoops comments never cease to amaze me. These comments and the fact he generally looks stupid and make stupid decisions on the sidelines tells me he is in over his head.

      I hope he grows into a good head coach but nobody can convince me now that he knows what he is doing.
      I suspect Stoops will become a good head coach down the road, but it will be at a MAC school.

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