By LARRY VAUGHT

The coach’s wife was downright giddy as she congratulated assistant coaches  as she left the Commonwealth Stadium pressbox because she knew what a key win this was for her husband.
However, it was Megan Mullen, the Mississippi State coach’s wife, and not Karen Brooks, the UK coach’s wife, doing the celebrating because the Bulldogs left with the Halloween treats thanks to a punishing 31-24 win.
“The season is not lost but it is not going to be the type season we thought it would be if we won this game,” said UK coach Rich Brooks. “The key thing is to bounce back and get a win before we go on the road and then try to steal one or two on the road and get bowl eligible. No question this is a very disappointing loss.”
Disappointing? Try season-wrecking.
Not only did UK lose, but the defense was shredded for 493 yards, including 252 yards on 33 carries by Anthony Dixon. The Cats also gave up a 72-yard touchdown pass by Tyson Lee, who had thrown only three touchdown passes all season.
But what was more perplexing were the plays UK called — or didn’t call — when it had a first down at the 4-yard line trailing 31-24. Rather than let Randall Cobb or Derrick Locke, the team’s two best playmakers and two most experienced offensive players, touch the ball, freshman quarterback Morgan Newton ran twice for only one yard and then threw an interception as he was pressured rolling out.
Both Brooks and Joker Phillips, UK’s head coach of the offense, said they wanted to check out of the first run but Newton didn’t see the call.
“This is us and coaching and is our responsibility,” Brooks said. “The other one, they closed it up real good and made a good play (on the run).”
The third play was a sprint-out pass option designed to get the ball to Cobb, but State never gave Newton a chance to make the play and he foolishly threw an interception trying to avoid a sack and make a big play.
Kentucky didn’t put Cobb at quarterback in its wildcat formation for those plays because State had shown it could stop him. Or at least that is what Brooks and his staff decided.
“We decided not to do it and when it does not work we open ourselves to be second guessed on a lot of things,” Brooks said. “We thought we had plays called that were working and they took them away.
“They did a good job. Maybe we should have gone to the wildcat. That’s what you want, you got it.”
Cobb wouldn’t second guess the play calls even if many others were.
“I trust this coaching staff.  They call the plays and we have to execute,” he said. “Would I have liked to have had the ball? Yes, I would. But that doesn’t mean we still could not have score.”
Don’t blame Brooks for being test because this was a night of horrors for him. A win would have put UK a 5-3 going into next week’s game with Eastern. Now the Cats are 4-4 and face road games at Vanderbilt and Georgia and then a home game with Tennessee — a team UK never beats — needing to win at least one to be bowl eligible.
“I don’t know if this was a step back, but this was a big game for us,” Phillips admitted. “We are down. This was a game we needed to take our program to the next level.”
Kentucky had another chance to tie the game even after failing to score when it got inside the 5-yard line earlier in the fourth quarter. This time Newton, who was 11-for-18 passing for 119 yards and ran 13 times for 39 yards, had two key third-down completions to Chris Matthews and one to LaRod King.
The Cats moved 64 yards to the Mississippi State 16, but on third down Newton’s pass to T.C. Drake was incomplete when he had Locke wide open on the other side. On fourth down, Newton was sacked and Megan Mullen started her celebration.
While Brooks was quick to credit State, which had played well in recent losses to LSU and Florida, for its play, he couldn’t help but be frustrated with his team much like he was two years ago when the Bulldogs came here and put another physical beating on his Cats.
“They outcoached and outplayed us. We were in position at halftime to take care of business and immediately turned it over (on an Alfonso Smith fumble) and let them run right through us,” Brooks said. “They came in here and did what they had to do and we didn’t do what we had to do.”
And now the Cats are going to have to do a lot more than they anticipated just to get to a fourth straight bowl game and can quit worrying about getting to a better bowl because after this overall performance, any bowl will be a good bowl for Kentucky.

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