Kentucky grounds-and-pounds Vanderbilt to finish SEC play on a high note
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Game day: Kentucky at Vanderbilt
Click below to view more of Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s 38-14 University of Kentucky football victory over Vanderbilt at Nashville, Tenn.
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Run. The. Ball.
Kentucky did more than enough of that — and even mixed in a few passes — in a 38-14 rout of Vanderbilt on the road Saturday.
UK piled up 401 rushing yards on 56 carries, and matched its season high for points scored this year. It was the Wildcats’ first time scoring 30 or more points since a 38-17 win over Eastern Michigan.
Kentucky finished with 400 rushing yards for at least the sixth time in school history (UK’s published records cut off the top-five rushing performances at 409 yards). The single-game record, 446, has stood since 1951: that season’s team rushed for 446 yards against Tennessee Tech on Sept. 15 of that year.
It was Kentucky’s second-best rushing total under Mark Stoops, and its most in a victory. His 2016 Cats rushed for 443 yards at Tennessee in a 49-36 loss.
Chris Rodriguez topped 100 yards for the first time in his career. He led the Cats’ big day on the ground with 129 yards and two TDs on 15 carries.
Lynn Bowden finished with on 17 carries for 110 yards, his fourth time going for more than 100 yards, despite not playing in the fourth quarter. He’s the first Kentucky player to ever rush for 100 or more yards against three consecutive Southeastern Conference opponents. Bowden was also 8-for-10 passing for 104 yards with a touchdown.
The game
Vanderbilt’s opening drive finished at its own 11 after a 20-yard loss on a fumble and a penalty pushed the Commodores backward. Kentucky’s first play from scrimmage — a hand off from Bowden to A.J. Rose — went 24 yards — but the Cats pushed only 6 yards further and settled for a field-goal try. Chance Poore connected on a 32-yarder to put UK up 3-0.
The Commodores were more composed on their second try: Ke’Shawn Vaughn led a trio of rushers who drove to UK’s 10-yard line. An offside penalty put Vandy at UK’s 5 on a third-and-3 attempt, and Vaughn evaded multiple Wildcat tackles to put his team in front 7-3.
Rose on UK’s next play from scrimmage rushed for 49 yards. Andre Mintze forced Rose to fumble on his next rush and it was recovered by Allan George, who took it 72 yards to the end zone. Kentucky responded with a 75-yard scoring drive capped by a Kavosiey Smoke TD run to pull within 14-10 as the second quarter got underway.
Keyon Brooks rushed 13 yards for a first down to start Vandy’s next drive but it stalled from there. Kentucky put together a 10-play drive — one pass, nine positive runs — to retake the lead; Chris Rodriguez finished it with a 22-yard scoring run.
Vanderbilt went three-and-out before Kentucky scored again to end the first half. Bowden completed three straight passes to end the drive; the last one went off the fingertips of a Vanderbilt defender and dropped into the hands of Josh Ali to put the Cats up 24-14 with 11 seconds to play.
Kentucky kept its feet on the ground out of the locker room, rushing four straight times before Bowden completed a 40-yard pass to Clevan Thomas, who was forced out of bounds shy of the end zone. Bowden walked in for his fifth rushing TD of the year to put UK past the 30-point mark for the first time since it defeated Eastern Michigan in week two.
Yusuf Corker recorded his first career interception to quickly put the ball back in Kentucky’s hands. A 28-yard pickup by Smoke off a screen pass from pushed UK into Vandy territory on a third-and-26 attempt. Rodriguez a few plays later scored Kentucky’s final TD from 27 yards out.
This story was originally published November 16, 2019 at 6:34 PM.
