South Carolina holds off UK 28-26

By Chip Cosby / ccosby@herald-leader.com

Charles Bertram

South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier, left, hugged UK's Rich Brooks after the game. Spurrier improved his record against the Cats to 17-0.

FOOTBALL: Kentucky at Georgia
Where: Sanford Stadium, Athens, Ga.
When: 7:45 p.m. Nov. 21
TV: ESPN/ESPN 2

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Date	Opponent	Time	TV	Result
2009 UK FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
(Home games CAPITALIZED; times are p.m.)
(Click on score for game coverage)
Sept. 5	Miami (Ohio)*	noon	ESPNU	W, 42-0
Sept. 19	LOUISVILLE	noon	ESPNU	W, 31-27
Sept. 26	FLORIDA	6	ESPN2	L, 41-7
Oct. 3	ALABAMA	12:20	SEC Network	L, 38-20
Oct. 10	at South Carolina	12:30	FSN	L, 28-26
Oct. 17	at Auburn	7:30	ESPNU	W, 21-14
Oct. 24	LOUISIANA-MONROE	7	FSN	W, 36-13
Oct. 31	MISSISSIPPI ST.	7	FSN	L, 31-24
Nov. 7	EASTERN KENTUCKY	1 p.m.	WKYT	W, 37-12
Nov. 14	at Vanderbilt	12:21 p.m.	SEC Network	W, 24-13
Nov. 21	at Georgia	7:45	ESPN2	--
Nov. 28	TENNESSEE	7	ESPNU	--
* -- at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati
Click here to see results of the 2008-09 season

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COLUMBIA, S.C. � When it comes to South Carolina, Kentucky is past the point of moral victories.

Sure, the Cats battled through a lot of adversity. They made the trip without their two starting cornerbacks, including All-America candidate Trevard Lindley. They lost starting quarterback Mike Hartline, who was playing perhaps his best game of the year, early in the third quarter to a sprained knee. And, as they do seemingly every year, they went tooth-and-nail with the Gamecocks into the fourth quarter.

And, as they do seemingly every year, the Wildcats found a way to lose.

All of the Cats' resilience went for naught, and No. 25 South Carolina held on for a 28-26 win in front of a less-than-capacity crowd of 68,278 at Williams-Brice Stadium. It was South Carolina's 10th straight win over UK and kept Coach Steve Spurrier unbeaten in 17 attempts against the Wildcats.

The Cats can look to a handful of plays and wonder what might have been. There were two potential touchdown passes that were dropped; a failed fake field-goal attempt in the third quarter; a costly procedure penalty that negated a first down and killed a potential go-ahead drive in the fourth quarter; a 5-yard punt that set up South Carolina for a touchdown; and a failed two-point conversion that could have tied the game with 4:34 remaining.

After the game, a somber coach Rich Brooks didn't see an upside in another hard-fought, close loss to the Gamecocks.

"You can't be encouraged by a loss," Brooks said. "I was proud of the way our kids battled and fought back. We were in this position to win this game, and this is one of those wins that we needed pretty badly, and we failed to get it."

Hartline looked in rhythm on UK's first drive and probably would have put six points on the board had Randall Cobb not dropped a perfect slant pass over the middle on third-and-5 from the Gamecocks' 18. Instead, Kentucky had to settle for a 36-yard Lones Seiber field goal at the 4:43 mark and a 3-0 lead.

Cobb had a monster game with 229 all-purpose yards and led a late drive as a quarterback in the Wildcat formation that brought the Cats to within two. But he was upset with himself for the drop.

"That's a big play that I have to make and am supposed to make," Cobb said. "That's why I'm out there, to make those plays, and I didn't make it."

Kentucky's other receivers combined for just six catches, one less than South Carolina freshman Alshon Jeffery. Taking advantage of UK's inexperienced and injury-riddled secondary, Jeffery caught seven passes for 138 yards and three scores.

Kentucky tight end T.C. Drake let a potential touchdown pass slip off his fingertips in the fourth quarter with Kentucky trailing 21-17.

"They made plays on the perimeter, and we didn't," said Joker Phillips, UK's head coach for offense. "Their big receiver (Jeffery) goes up and takes it from us, and our big receiver (Chris Matthews) didn't do that like theirs did. We dropped one in the end zone. Randall dropped one. You've got to make those plays. We don't ask them to do anything they can't do, and those plays we had a chance to make we just did not make."

South Carolina's Chris Culliver set up a pair of scores with long kickoff returns. His first went 61 yards and led to Jeffery's 10-yard TD catch that gave South Carolina a 7-3 lead with 3:55 left in the first quarter. After Derrick Locke scored on an 11-yard run to put UK back up 10-7, Culliver evaded several Wildcats for a 49-yard return to the Kentucky 39. Quarterback Stephen Garcia then hooked up with Jeffery again, this time from 28 yards, to reclaim the lead for South Carolina (14-10) at 13:06 of the second quarter.

"The second (kickoff return) was some of the worst tackling I've ever seen," Brooks said. "I think we missed nine tackles. It was not very good coverage."

Still, UK took a 17-14 lead into halftime. Hartline went back to the same quick slant that Cobb dropped earlier, and this time Cobb hauled it in for a 7-yard touchdown with 9:06 left in the second quarter.