Kentucky had one last disappointment in the 2024 season, but now it can’t hurt you anymore

The 2024 Kentucky football season is finally over. It can’t hurt you anymore.

The Wildcats capped off a hugely disappointing year by disappointing the program’s most loyal fans last Saturday, losing by 27 points at home to Louisville in the Governor’s Cup. You never want to lose the Governor’s Cup to Louisville, no matter the circumstances. This year, however, the loss was worse than others because it wiped out Kentucky’s five-year winning streak in the rivalry and largely poured gasoline on Mark Stoops’ hot seat. Fans aren’t just disappointed in Stoops after a 4-8 season without a bowl game; many are done with him.

Several of those Kentucky football fans voiced their opinions about Stoops as they left the stadium at halftime. With Louisville up 20 and Kentucky at 0 on the scoreboard, there was a stampede in the parking lots with two quarters left to play, voicing their frustration with Stoops and Kentucky’s performance in the home finale. No one expected Kentucky, a four-point home underdog, to win its final home game and retain the Cup in Lexington for the sixth time. But there was and always will be an expectation that the team would show up to compete, which Kentucky didn’t do to the level of its opponent, a team it beat in six of the last seven meetings.

Mark Stoops said afterwards: “We’ve been on the right side (of the rivalry) for many years and we know what it feels like to be on the right side and we know it now for the first time in a long time.” it feels like you’re on the wrong side, and it’s not particularly fun.

“I know the year has been very frustrating for a lot of people,” he added. “To our fan base: You have been wonderful and have been with us all year, including out there again today, and we are sorry that we did not perform better today and all season.”

0-5 at home against the SEC and Louisville

Unless you were impressed by wins over Southern Miss, Ohio and Murray State, the 2024 home opener at Kroger Field was a disaster. It started with a surprising 31-6 loss to South Carolina in Week 2, when expectations for the Wildcats were still high and Kentucky was a strong home favorite in the SEC opener. No one knew that the loss to the Gamecocks was just the beginning of the home disappointment.

After the loss to South Carolina, a good performance against Georgia showed signs of hope, even in a loss to the Bulldogs at Kroger Field. However, home losses to Vanderbilt and Auburn followed in October, again as betting favorites, securing Kentucky an 0-4 league record in Lexington. The fans came to all four games but were repeatedly disappointed.

Saturday was Louisville’s final blow, a microcosm of the year’s problems. The offense struggled like it has all year, this time with a new quarterback. The Wildcats took a 9-0 lead on third down and again failed to score more than 20 points. Kentucky never scored more than 20 points in a game against a Power Four opponent. Terrible.

On defense, Kentucky’s front, considered its strength throughout training camp, failed to live up to its potential one last time, surrendering 358 rushing yards on its own turf to the Cards. Isaac Brown and Duke Watson had their career days there, each with over 100 yards and two touchdowns each.

And the sales. Kentucky won the Governor’s Cup last year by forcing turnovers. This year, the script flipped as the Wildcats turned the ball over to the Cardinals five times, including a momentum-killing fumble on the game’s first drive. Jamarion Wilcox fumbled again in the second half once the Wildcats found some life, in addition to two interceptions by Cutter Boley and one by Gavin Wimsatt, who took over for Boley as QB.

Kentucky had more turnovers than touchdowns against the SEC and Louisville.

What now?

According to Mark Stoops, Mark Stoops isn’t going anywhere. He said after the game: “Everyone wants to replace me at the moment but I’m not going anywhere. “My butt will work tomorrow and I’ll try to be motivated as hell to fix it and recover.”

But fixing it and getting better is a huge hill to climb right now. Kentucky needs portal additions ready to play at multiple positions, plus likely personnel changes and a gigantic PR battle to win back fans for next season.

There could and likely will be chaos in Kentucky in the next few days as work now begins to resolve all of 2024’s problems, of which there have been far too many. The news will be announced soon. Before that happens, let’s close the book on the Governor’s Cup and the biggest disappointment of a season in recent memory. Luckily it can’t hurt us anymore.