Any angle, any time of day or night, even if a drone is buzzing around somewhere, Commonwealth Stadium is gorgeous.

Gorgeous too, was Mikel Horton’s 12-yard run near the end to save Kentucky’s bacon.

Still, if there was a word to best describe Kentucky’s season opener with Louisiana Lafayette, mine would be, wobbly.

√ The visitors’ offense had the football for 37-plus minutes, UK for 22.

√ Play calling by man wearing the head sets was wobbly too – 26 rushes while Lafayette had 47. Establish the run idea got lost.

√ Quarterback decision-making was wobbly.

√ Defense against the run: 5.6 yards average per rush by the Cajuns could be Steve Spurrier’s first order of business.

√ Blowing a 23-point lead was worse than wobbly.

√ And the apologist idea, “Well, Kentucky played real good except for maybe 18 minutes,” is wobbly too and just what the Spurriers are counting on.

Bottom line: Best treasure from a season opener? Game film to critique before Game two.

ABOUT THAT DRONE

That the drone-flying culprit at Commonwealth Stadium before the UK opener last Saturday was a student is no surprise. What could be a surprise: The answer to this question: How can a college kid be smart enough to operate one of these things, but dumb enough to fly it over the heads of 60,000-plus people, including police, as well as in the vicinity of flag carrying skydivers parachuting into the stadium before the season opener?

Imagine the kid’s call home.

“Well, Mom, I’m comin’ home.”

For WHAT?

“I’ve been expelled. I’ll (try to) explain when I get there.”

STATE D1s

For Hilltopper, Wildcat and Cardinal fans, bottom lines on openers rate somewhere between curious, bizarre and make-mine-a-turkey sandwich.

• Western Kentucky survived Vanderbilt because its defense stopped the Commodores’ 2-point try to tie. A year ago the Hilltoppers’ defense couldn’t stop a bad rumor.

• Louisville’s debut against Auburn was perfectly Walt Kelly. ‘We have met the enemy and he is us!’

Auburn’s 17-0 lead was pure Santa Claus and the coach who gave green light to UofL’s first offensive play ought be ordered to run stadium stairs at Papa John’s for a day or so.

That Louisville righted itself, played respectably to the end sounds good, but blanched ambitions for Top 25 entry any time soon.

• Kentucky bull-rushed Louisiana-Lafayette, then shifted gears to coast, while (too many) Big Blue fans coasted toward the parking lots.

Meanwhile, Lafayette regrouped, revved up, played on and took home pluses to build on.

• The Wildcats showed a how-to-fritter-away a 23-point lead, make video clips for South Carolina scouts to examine this week.

This week …

√ Western’s Hilltoppers, comes home from another SEC win to face rival for Conference USA top spot, Louisiana Tech. With weather turning more autumn-like, the Toppers-Bulldogs match this Saturday should attract a record-crowd. LA Tech put 62 points on the board last Saturday.

√ Louisville hosts Houston. Should be Cardinals’ first win, but, the Cougars scored 52 last week, thumping Tennessee Tech.

√ Kentucky’s script is like Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day. For the umpteenth time, Wildcat football has a pivot game on the schedule. A win in Columbia would launch Kentucky beyond its tiresome orbit of If-Only This … If-Only that.

Home opener for Steve Spurrier, the Gamecocks are fresh off a road win over North Carolina.

UK FUTURE IS NOW DEPT.

Kentucky played 14 freshmen in its opener last week. Most notably, well, all of them – tackle Asafo-Adjei, tight end C.J. Conrad, Denzil Ware, cornerback Chris Westry, linebackers Jordan Jones, Josh Allen and Nico Firios; defensive ends Adrian Middleton and Tymere Dubose; defensive backs Derrick Baity, Mike Edwards and Darius West, wide receiver Thaddeus Snodgrass and kick returner Sihiem King.

PREP GAME OF YEAR EARLY?

Louisville Trinity at Male Friday, 7:30 kickoff. One month in, this could be high school game of the year.

The Rocks and Bulldogs are 3-0 and average more than 50 points a game.

Trinity is fresh from a 70-14 beat-down of Lexington Lafayette while Male rolled up Fairdale 64-6.

A sidelight: A look at the list of college coaches attending this one.

Male High School officials may have to create a special section for college coaches.

WORTH REPEATING DEPT.

Emitt Holt was dismissed from Indiana basketball team last week. His apology included this little reality college officials don’t like to talk about. “While my dismissal from the Indiana basketball team was a consequence of my own choices, I’m primarily gulity(sp) of doing what most young college students do on any given weekend which is participate in campus life which often includes engaging in the use of alcohol.”

Hmmm.

PARTING SHOT

CBS Sports’ Verne Lundquist comment on Old English script for names on back of Louisville football uniform shirts.

“Kinda nifty,” Lundquist said, “Somebody’s been reading the New York Times … or Shakespeare.”

And so it goes.