Kentucky football just got flat-out embarrassed by Tennessee, and Big Blue Nation has officially reached its breaking point. This wasn’t just another loss — it was a complete meltdown that exposed every flaw in Mark Stoops’ program right now. From the lack of discipline to poor game planning and zero energy in the second half, Kentucky looked lost on both sides of the ball.
In this video, I break down every part of this disastrous game — what went wrong, who’s to blame, and why fans are more frustrated than ever. We’ll take a hard look at Mark Stoops’ coaching decisions, the offensive struggles that continue to haunt the Wildcats, and the defense that simply didn’t show up when it mattered most.
But that’s not all — we’re also diving into Matt Jones’ recent comments about Stoops and the state of Kentucky football. Matt Jones didn’t hold back when talking about the direction of this program, and his take could signal something much bigger brewing behind the scenes. Is the pressure from fans and media finally starting to reach the Kentucky administration?
We’ll talk about whether Stoops has truly hit his ceiling in Lexington, what realistic coaching options could be out there if a change is made, and what the next few weeks could mean for the entire future of this program. Because after a loss like this, the question isn’t just about the scoreboard — it’s about whether this era of Kentucky football is running out of steam.
If you love Kentucky football, this is the video you don’t want to miss.
💬 Comment below: Should Kentucky move on from Mark Stoops after this loss? Or does he still deserve more time?
📌 In this video:
Kentucky vs. Tennessee full breakdown
The turning point that sealed Kentucky’s fate
Mark Stoops’ questionable coaching decisions
Matt Jones’ reaction and comments on Stoops’ future
What’s next for Kentucky football moving forward
🔥 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and turn on notifications so you never miss another Kentucky football reaction, analysis, or postgame breakdown.
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Kucky’s offense shines verse Tennessee, but to no avail as evolves dominate the Cats in Lexington. We will talk about it all here on episode 82 of the Big Blue Breakdown. Bet you didn’t know there’s a place where Kentucky football and basketball fans unite. Welcome to Big Blue Breakdown. Whether you bleed blue or just love a good game, we’ve got the latest stories, hottest takes, and a whole lot of hometown pride. Hit play and join the conversation. This is your home for all things Kentucky sports. Allighty everybody. Welcome into episode 82 of the Big Blue Breakdown. I appreciate you guys coming in here and listening. I am your host Jackson Thurman. Um, if you guys are listening or watching, I very much appre appreciate you guys. If you guys are watching on YouTube YouTube, make sure to like, subscribe, and comment and share. And if you are on podcast, follow and comment there as well. Also, follow the show on social media on Tik Tokx and Instagram. The ad is bigblue_bdown. Um, and you’re missing extra content if you don’t follow us on social media. So, on today’s show, we will be talking about um there was no absolutely no defense in Kucky’s loss versus Tennessee. We will talk about how really good this young core is, especially on offense for the Cats. And we’re talking about Cutter, his legacy game against Tennessee. And then we’re lastly, we’re going to be talking about Matt Jones on Mark Stops and the future of the head coaching position at the University of Kentucky. And I’m going to share my opinions as well. So, let’s go ahead and jump right into this. So Kentucky obviously falls to Tennessee 56-34 in a game where we knew that if it came out to a quote unquote shootout, Kentucky was not going to be able to win that. Um I was surprised that Kentucky scored that many points if I’m being completely honest with you. It was really, really good to see the offense rolling, but as soon as the offense starts rolling, what happens? the defense completely falls apart and loses all of their stuff. So, it was definitely very much an up and down game here against the Tennessee Volunteers U as we will discuss in this episode. But yes, there was a lot of really really good things to like about in this game. But again, no defense in this game as Joey Aguilar threw for 20 had 20 completions out of 26. He had three touchdowns. I want to tell you some of the um the yards he had on a couple of his passes. Those include 35 yards, 47 yards, 62 yards, 50 and 56 yards. I mean, he absolutely torched this Kentucky uh Kucky’s secondary. I mean, the secondary was just completely exposed in this one. It was very, very hard to watch. From the first drive of the game, they had their way with the the Cats defense. We had we had two stops in a row and then they just dominated from there. Um they absolutely dominated from there. They were able just to take the top off consistently in this game against the Cats. And I was on um the VFAT show. You guys should go check them out. And I said the biggest key to this game, if there was one big key to this game, it would be to stop the explosive plays. Well, Kentucky did the absolute opposite of that in their loss against Tennessee. They could not stop the explosive plays downfield which led to a very very bad um loss with them scoring 56 points on the Cats. So or or 54 points, excuse me, on the Cats. So Kentucky does fall to the Valls uh by 22 points and it just seems like a hump that Kentucky cannot seem to get over. It was absolutely just abysmal for that secondary. Um, obviously without DJ Waller again, but just dudes just getting absolutely torched out there. And it it doesn’t just seem like a player problem in the secondary. This seems to be a schematic problem with Brad White. Um, the reason that I say that is simply because in the last couple of years, Brad White has simply not been able to schematically cover this Tennessee offense. And it is infuriating because it happens year after year. We got a glimpse of hope last year with Nico running quarterback. But even in 2020 uh 2021 when it was Josh Hibble’s first year, Kentucky still couldn’t cover them. They scored on the first play of the game in that year. So schematically, I think that’s what is majorly at fault in this one because Brad White cannot seem to cover the Josh Hypel offense. And then a smaller part to that which is which is still major is the secondary just getting completely exposed and now we’re going into a game against Auburn where they have a lot of dudes on on that wide receiver core in Cam Coleman in Eric Singleton. So this is very very scary and not a good sign for the Cats moving forward. very very hard to watch for that secondary because it seemed like every single play that Joey Aguilar would would sit back in the pocket and chuck one up, it was going to be caught and they were. And that’s that that is just very very sad to see for this secondary. I think it’s more of a schematic problem if I’m being completely honest. I do think it’s more of a schematic problem that Brad White has just not been able to get over. But that is just I the the secondary definitely was exploited in a lot of different ways, but I think most of it was schematically and we just haven’t been able to get over that hump. And the one time that Bush Hamen and this offense really clicks, what happens? We are not able to slow this Tennessee offense down because at one point in this game, I want to mention this here. At one point in this game, this game was 28-21 with about a minute and 30 to go in the second half. And what happened? Tennessee marched right down the field and scored a touchdown. So that became 35 to uh to uh 3521 at halftime, which is a completely different ball game when it’s 28-21 going into halftime instead of instead of uh it being 35. So, that completely killed the momentum of the Cats going into halftime and then we don’t score to start out uh the first half, which I said in my halftime report, we have to score our first drive and we got to stop them on their first drive when we did the complete and utter opposite of that. So, yes, the defense gets absolutely exposed, giving up 504 points to Tennessee. Before we go ahead and jump into why this it’s sad to see us really falling apart at this point, but man does Kentucky have a really really good young core. We’re going to talk about that. But before we do that, we’re going to go go ahead and give a quick word over to our sponsor at Dub Energy. Make sure to use code big blue 10 to get 10% off your order every time you use it. We’ll be right back here on episode 82 of the Big Blue Breakdown. Hello everybody. We wanted to take a break in this episode to tell you about our friends over at Duby Energy. Duby is a clean energy drink that is made to give you focus with no crash, jitters, or angs like any other energy drink. Some facts about Duby. Number one, it’s zero sugar, artificial colors, or dyes, or hidden ingredients. It is also glutenfree. Number two, all flavors are unique and custom made by Duby. You’ll never taste anything like a Duby drink. Number three, the drinks are $1 less, guys. Um, that is cheaper than Starbucks or any canned drink. Lastly, it is made in the US. It is close to home. Um, guys, if you if you guys are looking forward to going to a Kentucky football game or Kentucky basketball game and you need some energy, get Duby. Dubby is the perfect thing for you. Working out and you need some energy, you need Dub. You need Duby throughout the day, it is for you. Um, use promo code big blue tin to get 10% off every single order. Guys, it only it not only just helps you guys be be able to have a clean energy drink that it that you can use um all the time with the tubs that they give you to it helps it helps me and it helps the channel keep growing with you guys if you guys do that. Helps us um post more content and helps them guys. Um so it’s a winwinwin for everybody. But thank you guys so much um for your time here. Please go check out Duby to check out their website and when you are about to purchase something, use code promo code, excuse me, use promo code big blue 10 to get 10% off your order. Welcome back in guys. Let’s go ahead and jump into this amazing young cord that Kentucky has, even with this season feeling like it’s falling off the rails. Let me go and give you some stats here. And remember this name. Remember this name, DJ Miller. Five catches, 120 yards, two touchdowns. He had one really really big one in the in the first half and then had an amazing jump ball catch in the second half. Um really really liked what I seen from him. Five catches, 122 120 yards, two touchdowns. This dude has came alive. I think we first saw him last week against Texas. Had a couple catches then and then five catches later in this game. 1220 20 yards later, two touchdowns later, this guy is legit. I don’t know why. I don’t know why we didn’t have these guys out here earlier. Guys like DJ Miller, guys like Cam Miller, guys like JJ Hester that I’m about to talk about, guys like Jason Patterson even playing over a a guy um excuse me, and a guy like Dante Dell, which I think he is a better running back right now than Dante. I don’t understand it. And Cutter not even starting. So speaking of Cutter, man, what a game from Cutter Bolley. Five touchdowns from Cutterboly. Five passing touchdowns from Cutterboly. Man, what a game from him. Man, what a game for Cutter Bolley. You got to absolutely love what he’s been doing. His ability to to make plays right now is unlike what we have seen since Will Levis. He the way he is performing currently is the best that we have seen since Will Levis. He c he can make plays. he can push the ball downfield. He is not the issue right now. He is simply not the issue right now. This these receivers have came live for the Cats. We are deeper right now at the receiver room than we have been in a very long time. We have multiple targets that we can go after here. I don’t know why my camera is messing up here. Oh my goodness. There we go. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. I’m so sorry for the technical difficulties here. As you see, the camera is not working properly at all here. And I simply do not know why. I do not know why. Hopefully I can get this thing wrong. Here we go. Finally. There we go. Sorry. So sorry for the technical difficulties there as the camera cut out. But anyways, back to my point here where cutter bully having he’s not the problem with the Cats right now. Um absolutely having an amazing season what he has done so far for the Cats. Um, in this game he had a a a fumble that was that was t uh I don’t even want to go into the play where he makes a nice throw to Harley Gilmore over the middle. It’s a third down. Hardley tries to make something extra that’s not there. Ball gets punched out. Uh Jamori Mlin gets it. Starts running. He goes down and gets punched out. Two of our offensive linemen try to jump on it, it slips away and then Tennessee jumps on it. The epitome of Kentucky football is in that play. You should go look it up. It It is It is funny to watch now, but it was absolutely terrible to watch in the moment. Um, so man, that was bad. That was really, really bad. But the the young core right now for Kentucky is absolutely amazing. If we are able to keep this young core, no matter what happens with the coaching staff, that’d be awesome because I think with right coaches, hopefully they can utilize this talent because they are playing insanely good right now. Another name to mention here is Jason Patterson. I think he’s taking major strides in this running back room as Seth McG was out in this game. Big point there. Seth Mcgown was out. Jason Patterson steps up and has good guards in this one. JJ Hester, where has he been all season long? I think it’s been a little bit of an injury, but they just have not played this guy. JJ Hester, two touchdowns for Kentucky. This is a wide receiver that Kentucky does simply not have. DJ Miller and JJ Hester are the two biggest wide receivers, quote unquote, at the position for the Cats. I know you can mix in Josh Catis and Willie Rodriguez, who Willie Rodriguez is amaz like this young talent really excites me. Very much excites me. But the we we have to play the complete game to win and we just have not done that yet. We simply have not done that yet. Um JJ H with two touchdowns coming in. Amazing amazing game from him. Um and then you even go to another guy like Cam Miller who has made plays in big moments now. I love what I see from him. Um sorry that we are talking about this now as the Cats fall to two and five and 0 and5 in SEC play. It it is it is getting really bad. Talk about Cutter again here. Like he is the absolute future of this program. Again, playing absolutely out of his mind recently, playing amazing. Um I think he is like he is legitimately becoming he is in the he’s putting himself in the next couple of years to be in the the conversation of one of the best quarterbacks in the SEC. I legitimately think that with how he’s been playing, um his his ability right now to to make plays out of nothing, um his ability to play within the offense right now is amazing. He’s been able to do it all. Um he really showed in the Texas game how well he he can utilize his mobility and his athleticism to do really really good things, even scoring a rushing touchdown in that game. So his his strides are absolutely amazing. love what is I hope we can have him back next year. I don’t think I would see him going anywhere. I don’t be because of Lexington because of what this means to him. Um but yeah, I mean really really good game from Cutter there. Um, before we jump into uh before we jump into what Matt Jones had, his thoughts on Mark Stoops and the future of the head coaching position at the University of Kentucky and I’m going to give my thoughts on that as well. We’re going to go ahead and give a quick word over to our new friends at um at Bluegrass Elite. Guys, make sure to go check them out. Use um BBB 15 to get 50% off every single order. some of the best merchandise in the state of Kentucky for anything UK um anything uh Bengals related as well. Go check them out, guys. We’ll be right back here on the uh Big Blue Breakdown episode 82. 82. Yeah, 82. There we go. All right, real quick before we keep going, I’ve got to tell you about our new partners over at Bluegrass Elite. They’ve got some really nice Kentucky gear, clean designs, stuff that actually looks good on game days. I’ve been checking out some of their shirts and hoodies myself. And the cool thing is they’re hooking y’all up with 15% off every single time you order. Just use my code BBB15 at checkout. So, if you want to rep the cats and save a little money while doing it, hit that link down in the description of this video. Guys, go check them out. Really, really good gear over there. Make sure to use my promo code BBB15 to get uh 15% off your order every time you use it. Let’s go back to the episode. All righty, guys. Welcome back in. And this is now the last portion of episode 82 here. I appreciate you guys coming in here and listening. Make sure to go uh go help us out here on the YouTube and on uh on the on the podcast um and social media as well. uh trying to get to 100 subscribers here soon. So, I appreciate you guys if you guys could help there. So, lastly, I want to talk about Matt Jones and his thoughts on this whole stupid situation right now. And his his I mean, if you want to believe somebody, if you want to believe somebody, I think Justin Ran has had some really really good information over the past uh past couple of weeks. He’s a really really good source. But I think the best source obviously is going to have to come from KSR and from Matt Jones himself saying that he says, and I quote, “85 to 90% chance that Kentucky has a new football coach next year.” Um he he did say in a in a separate quote that this this is really going to come down to the games between Florida and Auburn simply. If he even loses one, they’re he’s probably going to get fired at the end of the year because I don’t see them making a change in the middle even though they should. That’s a separate conversation. And I hate to say I mean I I hate but I don’t hate to say this. Those are two winnable SEC games for the Cats. Those are two very very winnable games for the Cats. Look, Kentucky sits at two and five right now. Kentucky realistically. And I’m not I’m not saying I know we’ve been so negative and so hard on on Stoops here and some people just want that to be. I get that. I truly get that. But there is a real possibility there is a real possibility that Kentucky could be going into the Vandy game or any in the Louisville game mo most likely um with five wins and a chance to make it to a bowl game. There is a chance. There’s a chance coming from a fan perspective here. It’s my thoughts here. I want to see the winningest football coach in in Mark Stups stay once the game comes on. I want to see him stay. I want to see this dude succeed. I want to see Bush Hammond succeed. I want to see him continue what he did last night. Uh, excuse me, Saturday. Um, I want to see Brad White continue his run here. I do. I do. But there just comes to a point like right now where there probably already should have been a change, man. There probably already should have been um guys gone. Let’s be completely honest. But but Mitch Barnhartt ha I think is giving the opportunity to Mark Stups, giving him the benefit of the doubt to prove himself uh self uh uh to prove himself right and giving him the ability to keep his job. I think that’s simply true. And I know it’s hard to see right now see that vision, but it’s it really is true. It really is true. I also see a world where they want to keep this really good talent right now that Kentucky has this really really good thing that’s going on for the Cats right now and Matt Ponitaskki coming in next year. I could see them keeping stoops to keep that all together. I could but with such good insider like um with like M Jones I don’t see that now. But I could see us going into that Le Vandy a andor Louisville game with five wins. And if he makes it to a bowl game, I don’t know if he goes. Um, and I want to see him stay like like in the back of my in back of my mind, in the back of my heart, I want to see this guy succeed. I want to see him stay. I want to see his legacy in in the in the right way. I want to see his statue built simply. I’m gonna simply put it that way. But I just think it is it’s so hard to see that vision right now and I completely get that. I think it is time for a change. I think it is time for a change. But we might have to ride this one out, guys. We might have to ride this one out and we might be going into another offseason with Mark Stops. Let’s be completely honest. That is a real and open possibility. And it may maybe he excites us. I’m not putting off the fact that he may beat Florida and may beat Auburn and he could beat Louisville at the end of the year and make it to a ball game and get a win there and get really get these get these fans back on which I don’t think that that would completely get them back on either. But that I mean with this group I think he could get us fired up for next year but that that is looking slimmer and slimmer and slimmer now. Um and that’s why I think people want to make a change because they don’t see him having a a successful future. Um, I think even though it is a real possibility. So, I think that’s I think that’s the the the point of view of a fan here, especially for me, is I want to see this dude succeed. Um, but I just think that that that possibility and then these now these these jobs opening like LSU, like Florida, like Penn State where all these coaches that we could be getting if we were to get uh Lego Mark Stroops and seemingly would be better here, those those now are are closing with us not firing him now. So, I think that’s why people want him gone now. They don’t see a path to a future success. They don’t like what they’ve seen in the last couple of games with winnable games. him not being able to pull out the miss game, him not being able to pull out obviously the Texas game, him getting blown out in the South Carolina game, him getting blown out in the Georgia game, his defense not showing up in a night if they did, they had a chance to win against Tennessee, not winning the close games, not going into the fourth quarter with uh not winning those games. So, I think that’s why fans want them gone, the the inconsistency in that department. Um, but there I think there is a shot that he does wow us at the end here and there’s a chance that we could keep him but people not liking that because the future. Um, I do think there is a there is success possibly with this young core. Um, I do. It’s just can this can this coaching staff utilize them correctly which they simply have not been able to do. Um, but yeah, that that’s really my thoughts. But I appreciate you guys coming in here and listening to episode 82 of the Big Blue Breakdown. We will catch you guys tomorrow talking a little bit of Kentucky basketball. Um, I appreciate you guys coming here and listening to this one and we will talk to you guys again tomorrow. Make sure to go check us out on uh social media on Tik Tok X and Instagram. Use that at to get there at bigblue_bdown. Um, and as always, goats.
