Kentucky Wildcats

Kentucky Football Must Improve SEC-Worst Turnover Margin

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The Kentucky football team has been the worst in the SEC at winning the turnover battle. Head coach Mark Stoops is focused on fixing that flaw.

The Kentucky football team is 4-3 overall and 3-2 in conference play. That’s an encouraging reality for a Wildcats squad that hasn’t made a bowl game appearance in any season since 2010.

If it’s going to end that six-year drought, then Kentucky will need to improve its fatal flaw: turnovers.

The Wildcats have been able to overcome their turnover issues in an effective enough manner to be a game above .500. Four wins isn’t the end goal, however, and two more wins will be tough to come by.

According to Jennifer Smith of The Lexington Herald-Leader, the focus in Lexington is set on improving the turnover margin.

“Obviously, you’d like to see us win the turnover margin, that’s for sure, it is unheard of,” he said of Kentucky being 4-3 overall and 3-2 in the league despite a conference-worst turnover margin of minus-1.29.

Of those costly mistakes, Stoops added: “It can’t happen. We make light of it, but our players know. We’ve harped on it. We’re going to continue to harp on it. … The one at the end is inexcusable, so that we have to get straightened out.”

Kentucky is the worst team in the SEC at winning the turnover battle, which is a clear reason to be concerned.

Kentucky is tied for No. 7 in the SEC—a conference made up of 14 teams—with seven interceptions. Kentucky is dead last in the SEC with just two fumble recoveries.

Kentucky is also tied at No. 3 with seven interceptions thrown and have lost an unforgivable 11 fumbles.

Kentucky’s 18 turnovers are more than all but three teams have during the 2016 college football season. By comparison, it’s forced just nine turnovers—half as many as it’s coughed up through seven games.

That includes the turnover that Stoops was alluding to, when starting quarterback Stephen Johnson fumbled and Mississippi State returned it 81 yards for a touchdown.

Kentucky held on to defeat Mississippi State, but thus far, it’s allowed 83 points off of turnovers—36.7 percent of the total points allowed, per Smith. That means more than one-third of the points that the Wildcats’ have allowed have been preventable.

Kentucky has at least 40 points in all three of the games that it’s committed three or more turnovers.

By comparison, it’s allowed 20 or fewer points in the four games that it’s committed fewer than three turnovers.