Cats search for 'hot hand' at quarterback
LEXINGTON, Ky. – For all the talk of a possible change at quarterback for Kentucky after the Georgia loss, the Wildcats’ trip to Vanderbilt started the same way as the previous nine games: with junior Patrick Towles under center.
Towles found some early success with a 5-yard gain on a quarterback draw on the first play of the game. Three drops from Kentucky receivers on the opening drive did Towles no favor but he led the offense to a field goal for an early 3-0 lead.
After the first drive success was much harder to come by for Towles and the offense in what ended up a 21-17 loss.
The second Kentucky drive ended with a punt after three plays. The third drive reached the Vanderbilt 1-yard line, but the Wildcats failed to score on four attempts at the end zone.
Three consecutive drives without a first down, the last of which ended with a Towles interception in the end zone were enough to convince the coaching staff to give redshirt freshman backup Drew Barker a chance at quarterback.
Stoops expects criticism after Vanderbilt loss
“We had the mentality all week that we felt like Drew was going to get some opportunities in this game, unless Patrick just came out and completely lit it up,” UK head coach Mark Stoops said. “But we had prepared to play Drew in this game, and that's the way it went.”
Barker gave the offense the spark it was looking for by completing a 42-yard bomb to sophomore wide receiver Jeff Badet on the first play of a 70-yard touchdown drive to give Kentucky a 10-7 lead. Barker completed all three pass attempts for 57 yards on the drive.
“I thought Drew came in and gave us a spark, did some good things, made some good throws,” offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson said.
The Barker era at Kentucky took a turn, however, after two more plays, as Barker threw an interception that was returned 30 yards for a touchdown on the third play of his second drive.
“That’s on me, 100 percent,” Barker said. “If that never happened, we probably win the game. You can’t really look back on things like that. It happened, it happened. I got over it quickly, but it was just a bad read.”
UK defense left frustrated after loss
Barker remained on the field for three more drives, but he completed just 2 of 5 passes for three yards after his opening touchdown drive.
On the second drive of the third quarter, Dawson and Stoops handed the reins of the offense back to Towles.
“We were just trying to see who would have the hot hand,” Stoops said. “We'll look at the film and see that. But I don't know if that had an effect on the game or not.”
That move yielded a three-and-out, but on Towles’ second drive of the third quarter Kentucky drove 91 yards for a touchdown. The Wildcats gained 82 of the 91 yards on the ground with sophomore running back Stanley “Boom” Williams doing most of the damage on a 66-yard carry.
Towles led Kentucky into the red zone on Kentucky’s next drive but the offense stalled at the Vanderbilt 14-yard line and was forced to settle for a field-goal attempt that was no good.
Kentucky would not record another first down in the game.
Game Recap | Vandy 21, Kentucky 17
Towles converted 10 of 26 passes for 67 yards and one interception in the game. He was 5-for-9 for 45 yards after returning to the field in the third quarter.
Barker completed 5 of 8 passes for 60 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
“I thought both of them did some decent things,” Dawson said. “We just made some critical errors, really put the defense in a bad situation.”
Stoops acknowledged the staff hopes one quarterback can play well enough to take control of the job, but after an up-and-down performance from both quarterbacks, the status of the position remains a question mark with Kentucky needing wins in each of its last two games to reach a bowl.
“We need to throw the ball better and put them in better situations,” Dawson said. “We just made some critical errors at bad times.”
Email Jon Hale atjahale@courier-journal.com. Follow him on Twitter@JonHale_CJ.
