Three Takeaways From Kentucky's 21-0 Music City Bowl Loss to Iowa
Kentucky football was on the wrong end of the first ever shutout in Music City Bowl game history.
The Wildcats compiled less than 200 yards of offense, went 2-18 on third down and found zero mojo for four quarters of football. It's the first time that the Wildcats have been shutout since a 21-0 defeat to the Georgia Bulldogs in October 2019. It also snapped Kentucky's postseason winning streak of four games. UK is now 2-4 all-time in the Music City Bowl.
Afterward, it was all about the future for coach Mark Stoops. He even admitted at the end of the game that he was "ready to get the hell out of there."
Whether he means Nissan Stadium, Nashville or 2022, his wish will be granted, as the Cats will certainly look to forget everything that took place this afternoon.
Here are three takeaways from Kentucky's defeat:
Destin Wade is more than a placeholder to Stoops
The writing was on the wall for the Wildcats offensively the second that it was announced that Iowa would be their opponent. Any capable defense around this season has feasted on Kentucky's poor attempts at scoring points, let alone a top-10 unit like the Hawkeyes possess.
Destin Wade was pegged as the man for the job by many once it was announced that Will Levis wasn't going to play in the game. Wade possess dual-threat ability and certain traits that could've given UK some life if used correctly. As it turns out, nothing was saving Wade from Iowa's defense on Saturday.
He would throw a pair of interceptions that would be returned for touchdowns while completing 16 passes for 98 yards and running for another 29. It was ugly, to say the least.
Stoops knew that the deck was going to be stacked against the true freshman, but he also wasn't just sending him out there for no reason. He is very confident in what Wade can do as a quarterback, and that extends pass filling in for this game to close out the season.
"With the confines of our offense, our system, down a coordinator, (Wade) was put in a tough situation. He will learn from it, without a doubt."
"A young man with a bright future. So there'll be a lot of armchair quarterbacks that sit back and want to critique this guy, but I tell you right now, let them go back there and play against that defense and see how easy that is ... he manned up and did some good things, we needed to play very well around him."
Stoops also noted that he saw Wade as a potential quarterback for the future. Kentucky will of course welcome NC State transfer Devin Leary in with open arms, but it's clear that there could be big things in store for the Nashville native, even if his first start of his career went awry.
A firm reminder that Kentucky football is rooted in defense
Kentucky's defense forced eight three-and-outs, only gave up seven points on 206 total yards, didn't allow Iowa to convert a third or fourth down, and yet the Wildcats lost by 21 points.
That is an extremely hard thing to do, at any level of football. The final score doesn't look great, but the box score indicates just how good the Cats were on the defensive end on Saturday.
Linebacker Trevin Wallace led the way with six tackles, but nine players have three or more. Wallace is the perfect reminder about the future of Kentucky football, as he was already filling in for veteran and team captain DeAndre Square, who was unable to play in the game due to injury.
Square, as well as linebacker Jacquez Jones and Jordan Wright's UK career are officially over, but they are clearly leaving the unit in great hands.
"We got guys with heart," Jones said postgame. "That's all you can ask for, when the odds are against you, you can either fold or keep on climbing...that's what we did and that's how we need to continue to play."
In 2021, Big Blue Nation was introduced to a whole new world of offense when Levis, wide receiver Wan'Dale Robinson and Co. came to town. The new look was a smash hit, and set an a precedent that frankly wasn't capable of being reached in 2022.
As the offense sputtered this season, it took the headlines, as things all of a sudden were going back to normal, when the opposite was expected. But that entire time, defensive coordinator Brad White and his group kept on churning, and put out good performance after good performance.
Kentucky football was put on the map because of defense. Saturday was a stern reminder that that's where the bread gets buttered in Lexington.
Stoops is swiftly looking onward to 2023
Not a lot went right for Kentucky this season. The Music City Bowl was a microcosm of many of the errors that plagued the Wildcats over the course of the year.
Scoring zero points is anything but fun, and one may think that such a thing would lead to an unhappy coach Stoops postgame. That really wasn't the case. It was very clear that he understood the situation at hand, and seemingly carried the "is what it is" mindset to the podium to discuss the loss.
Instead of talking about what went wrong, Stoops took most of his time bragging on players like Destin Wade and Trevin Wallace, while setting his sights on the future of Kentucky football:
"Things are going to be fine. We have a very good football tea that wants to come back hungry ... lot of work to do but I'm really excited about it because I feel like there's a great nucleus of this young players. There's a really good set of great guys with experience coming back."
Stoops would also point towards the hiring of new running backs coach Jay Boulware as well as expected new offensive coordinator Liam Coen, though the latter wasn't mentioned by name and nothing is "official."
The first word that comes to his mind when he thinks of the 7-6 season being put to bed and looking ahead is "exciting."
"I have great support to have the ability to make changes when I have to even if I feel like I made a mistake or for whatever reasons not working. I have that ability and the autonomy to make the changes that I feel that need to be made. I feel like we're addressing them and it excites me to get back to work. If you can't handle those things in the wrong business, because this is challenging to say the least."
Sure, this season was nothing close to what the Wildcats expected. Hopes and dreams of making it to the SEC Championship were quickly diminished via injuries and plenty of underperforming. It wound up finishing with a scoreless effort in Nashville, leaving a rather sour taste.
But Stoops and Kentucky excelled in December. The 2023 recruiting class features 17 players and ranks among the top 35 in the country. The transfer portal gave a new top-level quarterback, running back and help on the offensive line and in the secondary. Many of the reasons for failure from a coaching staff standpoint have been addressed in quick fashion.
Stoops isn't taking time to dwell on what's now the past, because he sees the potential in what the future holds...and the future is now.
More on the Music City Bowl loss here.
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