Kentucky time machine: Cats crushed Tar Heels in 1976 Peach Bowl

Editor’s Note: The Herald-Leader continues its series re-publishing the game stories from Kentucky’s 10 football bowl victories in chronological order. These stories appear, with some light editing, as they were written at the time in the Herald, the Leader or the Herald-Leader. We hope you’re enjoying them.

Dec. 31, 1976

KENTUCKY 21, NORTH CAROLINA 0

Peach Bowl at Fulton County Stadium

Herald and Leader headline:

‘Cats Win Peach Bowl; Record Crowd Sees UK Whip N. Carolina 21-0

“We were groping in the first half, jumping all over trying to settle into something.”

Fran Curci, Kentucky’s coach, said that about a scoreless tie at intermission of yesterday’s Peach Bowl game with North Carolina.

“Then we let our offensive line do what it does best (which is open massive holes for Kentucky’s runners). We decided to go at ‘em and hope we could get control,” the coach added.

This is to say that Kentucky got control. A 21-0 victory over the punchless Tar Heels proved that to a record crowd of 54,132 at frigid Atlanta Stadium.

Numbers can be boring except to the not-so-silent majority of delirious Wildcat fans who can ring in a new year after major victories over Notre Dame in basketball and UNC in football the last two days.

But, for now, the numbers show this:

▪ Kentucky gained 334 total yards to Carolina’s 108, the last figure being the lowest in Peach Bowl history. UK also held a 19-5 edge in first downs, giving up only three for the first 50 minutes. UNC’s total is another Peach Bowl low.

▪ Kentucky runner Rod Stewart, who tied a bowl record with three touchdowns, outran the entire North Carolina backfield 104 yards to 84. Little wonder he was voted offensive player of the game.

▪ Kentucky turned in its third shutout in its last four starts. The last shutout before all this happened was a decade ago — against North Carolina.

And it was 25 years ago that the Wildcats won eight games. That 1951 team won its eighth game in the Cotton Bowl, ironically, UK’s last postseason appearance until yesterday. And last until at least 1978 because of the school’s one-year probation.

This point must now be made about North Carolina. The ankle injury suffered Wednesday by All-American tailback Mike Voight was indeed serious, not a “psyche job” like many Wildcats figured.

“I wanted to play,” Voight said after leaving the frozen tundra of Atlanta Stadium. But he did not. His absence took 1,407 yards and 18 touchdowns from the Tar Heel attack responsible for a 9-2 regular-season record.

“Certainly, we missed Voight,” Carolina Coach Bill Dooley said. “But I don’t want to use that as an excuse.”

Of course not.

But Curci agreed with his counterpart.

“I’m certain Voight not playing hurt them,” he said, “but we didn’t change anything. He’s a great athlete, but we figured if he didn’t play, that was too bad for them.”

So quarterback Matt Kupec tried to operate his offense with three tailbacks who had carried the ball 52 times all season. In contrast, Voight carried 315 times himself.

So the Tar Heels wound up with 41 rushing plays worth 84 yards, two per try. The rest of the day, Kupec tried to pass. He threw 15 times with six completions — three to teammates and three to Kentucky’s alert secondary. And one fumble set up the Cats’ first score.

Mistakes hurt Heels

“Our offensive mistakes hurt us,” Dooley sighed. “I thought our defense played well. But they just had to stay on the field too long. We couldn’t get any kind of a sustained drive going.”

And Curci declared, “Our defense kept us in the game. They kept turning the ball over to us.”

Linebacker Mike Martin, a reserve at the start of the season, was voted to receive the outstanding defensive player award. “I thought I could do the job all along,” he slyly admitted.

Martin “did the job” yesterday stopping countless Tar Heel runners himself and assisting on other tackles. But he did not enjoy the glory alone.

Mike Siganos, Rick Hayden and John Bow had Kentucky interceptions. They could do that while guys like Art Still, Jerry Blanton, James Ramsey, Bob Winkel and others were pressuring Kupec. And Bud Diehl forced Kupec’s bobble that set up UK’s first TD. He recovered another himself.

“All we had to do was wait for the defense to give us a break,” said offensive tackle Larry Petkovsek, who moved into the lineup when Steve Slates underwent an appendectomy last week. “They recovered that fumble early in the second half, and that set off our fuse.”

Ramsey recovered Kupec’s bobble at the Carolina 21. It took seven plays, but Stewart made the final yard on a fourth-down call with 9:55 left in the third quarter.

There were two key plays. After an illegal procedure call set UK back to the 26, quarterback Derrick Ramsey ran to the right and fumbled, but Randy Brooks quickly recovered the ball.

Two plays later, Chris Hill sneaked out the back field to catch Ramsey’s pass for 13 yards to the Carolina six on third-and-8. Four plays later, Stewart scored all the points UK would need.

Kentucky, of course, got more.

After two Pete Gemmill punts — one for 18 yards, the other for a Peach Bowl-record 62 — UK took over at its 43. On the ninth play, Stewart burst up the middle for 13 yards and his second TD.

The clock showed 13:01 left in the game.

Brooks’ 11-yard sprint to the right was the long “gainer” on the drive until Stewart’s score. Another key play was Stewart’s 3-yard pickup on fourth-and-inches at the UNC 23.

“We used some veer plays in the second half that were good for us,” Curci explained. “And our right side was controlling the line. We just settled down to what we had been used to doing.”

Which included another touchdown after missing a chance at the one when Greg Woods fumbled with UNC’s Chuck Austin recovering.

Hayden’s 10-yard return of a Kupec pickoff put UK on the enemy 17. Hill gained six and Brooks 10 to the one before the fumble.

That’s when North Carolina got its only two first downs of the second half, converting third-and-2 plays. But the Heels wound up punting from their 22. It took four and a half minutes for the Cats to make their final score. Brooks had gains of 11 and 15 yards en route to 66 yards on eight carries for the sunny but icy afternoon. (Game-time temperature was 32 degrees and dropping.)

Stewart covered the final 3 yards on a fourth-and-1 call with 3:04 left. John Pierce then kicked his third straight extra point.

Until Kentucky finally began scoring after intermission, the game was a lackluster affair except for the highly vocal UK fans who outnumbered the enemy at least two to one though the odds seemed much more in their favor than that.

An offsides penalty cost Carolina its best chance because Kupec and Walker Lee completed a 50-yard scoring pass on its third play. Lee got behind the injured Dallas Owens for the easy catch that was erased by the infraction.

“The officials said one of our offensive guards lined up offsides,” Dooley explained. “They certainly swung the momentum around. Our plan had been to come out and throw long and hopefully loosen up their defense so we could get our ground game going.”

It didn’t work.

Carolina managed a first down at the 43 but Billy Johnson fumbled with Diehl recovering.

The Tar Heels got back in UK territory in the second quarter. But Kovach led a charge that stopped Johnson one yard short of a first down at the 34.

Kentucky’s best first-half opportunity ended when Pierce missed a 24-yard field goal attempt in the final two minutes.

Stewart’s 28-yard scamper to the Carolina 38 opened the drive. Twice, UK converted on fourth down until it faced fourth-and-goal from the two. After a timeout, the Cats tried to draw UNC offside, failed and took a delay penalty.

Kicking from the right hash mark, Pierce was wide to the left.

“Fourth-and-2 was too long to go for,” Curci explained. “We wanted to draw them offside, then go for it from the one. But they didn’t go for our false call.”

North Carolina’s next-best chance — and its last — came when Siganos misplayed a punt, Larry Tedder covering it at the UK 26 midway through the third quarter. Two running plays gained 6 yards and two incompletions gave Kentucky possession.

“When we stopped them then, we got our second wind,” Martin said. “I knew we’d get a shutout.”

Martin, of course, was right.

This story was originally published June 7, 2020 at 9:28 AM.