The Kentucky Wildcats are No. 5 on USA Today’s Misery Index for week 1 of college football.
Here’s what the site says about Kentucky’s terrible loss to Southern Miss:
5. Kentucky: It wasn’t a great weekend to be a Stoops brother, especially Mark as he enters a monster season. Kentucky has given him everything he needs from sparkling new facilities to a big, fat contract, and all he’s produced is some nice recruiting classes and 12 wins (just four in the SEC) in three seasons.
The Wildcats also have had a habit of losing winnable games and blowing big leads, both of which were factors in a 44-35 loss to Southern Mississippi. Kentucky led by 25 in the second quarter before a total second-half implosion. It’s bad enough on its own, but even worse because Southern Miss’ offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson got a Gatorade bath at the end of the game. Why? Before the 2015 season, Kentucky hired Dawson to run its offense but threw him under the bus quickly when things fell apart.
Dawson landed at Southern Miss, returned to Lexington and put up 520 yards in the opener. All things considered, it could not have gone worse for Stoops. The fan base has already started to turn on him but held out hope this year would be different. It looks no different after one week, and remaining support is teetering.
