After another abysmal offensive showing in a 24-10 loss to Auburn, Kentucky coach Mark Stoops wanted to make it clear that the Wildcats’ woes cannot be attributed to any one player.
Eight games of the 2024 season have been enough to prove him correct.
The pass protection has varied from atrocious to barely passable. The run game has looked efficient at times but lacked explosiveness. The receivers continue to show glimpses of talent interspersed around frustrating lapses in concentration.
But the quarterback play always gets the most attention, and after Stoops benched starter Brock Vandagriff for Gavin Wimsatt in the second half Saturday it has returned to the top of the list of questions.
“I don’t need that to dominate the headlines,” Stoops said when asked if he considered the starting job open for competition after UK’s third straight loss. “We’re not playing very well. It’s never on one person, so if it’s Gavin or if it’s Brock, whoever it is, I mean, they can only do so much.