After Mark Stoops put the Kentucky football program on a solid footing, a similar pattern has emerged in most, if not all, seasons since 2017. Kentucky starts strong or fairly strong, but then falters toward the end of the season. Of course, some might argue that this is because most of its non-conference games come in the first half of the year. But that’s actually not true at all. In fact, since 2017, Kentucky has played 15 games against non-conference opponents in the first half of its schedule and nine games against non-conference opponents in the second half. Not exactly a huge margin.

Just look at the results of the first 6 games (or 5 games in 2020) since the 2017 season:

1ST HALF OF SEASON

2017: 5-1 (2-1 SEC)
2018: 5-1 (3-1 SEC)
2019: 3-3 (1-3 SEC)
2020: 2-3 (2-3 SEC)
2021: 6-0 (4-0 SEC)
2022: 4-2 (1-2 SEC)
2023: 5-1 (2-1 SEC)
COMBINED: 30-11 (15-11 SEC)

A very solid group of results. Four out of seven times they started the second half of the year with zero or one loss. A winning SEC record in 4 out of 7 seasons. Stoops had teams in the top 25 in 4 out of 7 seasons. All very respectable seasons so far (except 2020).

Then check out the second half of the season:

2ND HALF OF SEASON

2017: 2-4 (2-3 SEC)
2018: 4-2 (2-2 SEC)
2019: 4-2 (2-2 SEC)
2020: 2-3 (2-3 SEC)
2021: 3-3 (1-3 SEC)
2022: 3-3 (2-3 SEC)
2023: 2-4 (1-4 SEC)
COMBINED: 20-21 (12-20 SEC)

Only two of seven seasons are winning. Not a single SEC win in the entire series. And don’t forget that Kentucky played Louisville six times in that group of games and won five of them. Stoops’ teams have been worn out in the second half of the season for one reason or another. Yes, Tennessee and Georgia usually finished in the second half. But at some point, that shouldn’t matter if we want to call ourselves a serious football team. Do we think we would have beaten the Dawgs and Vols in September when they beat us in October? I don’t think so.

So why do we have such a tough time in October and November? I honestly don’t have an answer. It can’t be injuries. All teams have injuries. It’s not fatigue. All SEC teams have brutal schedules. It’s not depth. We’ve been told time and time again that Mark Stoops has added depth to this program. So that’s not the reason.

HOW DOES STOOPS CHANGE IT?

I think that’s what it comes down to. At some point, Kentucky has to be able to do a few things:

1. Create a surprise. At the beginning of the year they are the favourites in most games, then later on they are the underdogs. We need to come up with a few surprises.
2. Have to adapt. Maybe teams try to figure out the Cats early in the year, but later in the year it often seemed like we were outsmarted. It often seemed like we were trying to do what we wanted and not adapt when we needed to. Teams saw through us.
3. The rivalry must be maintained. Imagine if Louisville hadn’t been a disaster for most of that time. Now that the Cards are competitive again, it’s even more important that Kentucky maintains a stranglehold on this rivalry.

The second half of the schedule this year: Florida, Auburn, Tennessee, Murray State, Texas and Louisville.