‘I’ll take it.’ New Kentucky starter scored first career TD in unusual fashion.
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Kentucky tight end Justin Rigg was a good bet to score at some point, if not multiple times during his junior season. It wasn’t surprising, either, that he would be the first Wildcat to score this season.
The how was unusual, though: Rigg recovered a fumble by redshirt freshman Chris Rodriguez in the end zone to get UK on the board against Toledo in a game Kentucky would go on to win, 38-24.
“I wish that it could have been better, but I’ll take it,” Rigg said with a laugh Saturday. “It was just an instinct. I saw it right there and I just dove on it. I don’t care who scores as long as we get the win.”
Rodriguez finished with 34 yards on five carries, the longest going for 21 yards. UK offensive coordinator Eddie Gran said Rodriguez felt awful about coughing the ball up and creating a potential turnover.
Gran said Rodriguez had his arm locked around ball perfectly as he approached the end zone.
“And then when he came around, that arm got pulled off and that became a fumble,” Gran said. “But for two redshirt freshmen (Rodriguez and Kavosiey Smoke), it looked like they did some good things.”
Rigg played in UK’s last 26 games as a backup to C.J. Conrad before Saturday and started twice last season.
Next game
Eastern Michigan at Kentucky
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
TV: ESPNU or SEC Network alternate channel
Records: Kentucky 1-0, Eastern Michigan 1-0
This story was originally published August 31, 2019 at 4:57 PM.
