Ever since a win at playoff contender Ole Miss on Sept. 28, the sky has fallen on Kentucky’s season.
The Wildcats (3-6) have lost four straight since then and will have to win their last three games just to gain bowl eligibility, starting with Saturday’s nonconference home game against Murray State in Lexington, Ky.
Coming off a bye week, talk of late has centered more on head coach Mark Stoops’ future rather than the last three games of the season.
At his weekly news conference on Monday, Stoops quickly debunked any rumors that he will step down after this season.
“Zero percent chance I’ll do that,” Stoops said.
The biggest issue for Kentucky this year has been its offense, given the Wildcats are last in the league in points scored and yards per game. Brock Vandagriff threw for just 123 yards with a touchdown and an interception in the Wildcats’ last game, a 28-18 loss to then-No. 7 Tennessee.
Kentucky has scored 20 or more points in just four of its games this year, but Stoops believes there is still time to salvage something out of the season.
“We still have a quarter of the season left,” he said. “It’s up to us how we decide to finish. I trust in our team and I believe in our team.”
Kentucky figures to at least get on track against an FCS-level Murray State team that comes in 1-9 under first-year head coach Jody Wright.
The Racers have lost seven games in a row since recording a 59-8 win over Mississippi Valley State on Sept. 14.
In a way, Saturday’s game will be a matchup of weakness vs. weakness. While Kentucky has had trouble scoring points, Murray State has surrendered an average of 45 points a game this year.
“The main thing that keeps showing up on us is we are still missing too many tackles on some run fits,” Wright said. “We’re going to continue to practice physical and try to find guys who can do that. We definitely know we’ll have to have instant-impact guys to come in and help us for next year. But we’ve got to get the best we can for the last two games of football from what we have on this roster currently.”
Jayden Johannsen leads the Racers with 1,405 passing yards and seven touchdowns, but he has thrown 10 interceptions.
