South Carolina Football: SEC East rival head coach calls out starting quarterback

South Carolina football was off this weekend as the Gamecocks were on their 2023 Bye Week. However, 11 other teams played on Saturday (Tennessee and Auburn were also on their Byes). One of the highly-anticipated matchups was in Athens, Georgia between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Kentucky Wildcats.

Most expected the ‘Dawgs to win, but based on Kentucky’s hot start (5-0 with a blowout win over Florida), many college football fans were eager to see how ready the ‘Cats were to be real contenders in the SEC East.

As it turned out, “not all that close” could be used to describe UK’s chances to compete with the two-time defending national champs. Kentucky lost in embarrassing fashion 51-13.

After the game, Wildcat head coach Mark Stoops, who has no issue calling out others, took out his ire on his starting quarterback.

When asked about Devin Leary’s struggles as the QB1 in Lexington and about any potential health concerns for the new transfer starter for Big Blue, Stoops was very critical.

The 11th-year Kentucky head coach said that he has “no reason to believe” Leary is less than 100% healthy and that his play has left the coach “disappointed.” Stoops would go on to get a little more animated in the conversation with the Kentucky media and frustratingly declared that “there’s no excuse to not hit some of those passes. I mean we got some guys wide open.”

The frustration is understandable for Stoops as Leary has been pretty bad most of this season after transferring to Kentucky with high expectations. He missed most of the 2022 campaign with injury but was one of college football’s best passers in 2021 with NC State. That season, Leary threw for almost 3500 yards and had a 35-5 touchdown-interception ratio.

This fall, Leary has already matched that interception total, and he has completed less than 55% of his passes on the year. That includes converting on under 50% of his throws against both Florida and Georgia, Kentucky’s only quality opponents so far this season.

The South Carolina football team will welcome Kentucky to Williams-Brice Stadium on November 18th.