‘Maybe you should ask them.’ Coaches, players react to ‘chippy’ Gator Bowl.
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Gator Bowl wrap-up: Kentucky 23, North Carolina State 21
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-North Carolina State Gator Bowl football game at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Fla.
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Penalties, particularly of the unsportsmanlike conduct variety, were commonplace during Kentucky’s 23-21 victory over N.C. State in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl on Saturday.
Kentucky finished the game with 10 penalties for 103 yards while N.C. State was flagged seven times for 45 penalty yards. That’s the accepted count, at least; N.C. State had three offsetting unsportsmanlike conduct flags that didn’t result in penalty yardage. Counting those, Kentucky finished with eight unsportsmanlike fouls and N.C. State had four.
Players who commit more than one unsportsmanlike penalty in a game are automatically ejected. All 12 flags were drawn by unique players.
Tension between teams sometimes rises during bowl week as a part of proximity to one another during bowl-organized events, but this year Kentucky and N.C. State did not arrive in Jacksonville until Friday due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some Kentucky players last year exchanged social-media words with Virginia Tech players in the lead-up to the Belk Bowl, and that game was preceded by a brush-up involving Kentucky quarterback Lynn Bowden that led to a procedural rule change in college football.
“I don’t know,” N.C. State head coach Dave Doeren said in a postgame news conference when asked about the rash of penalties. “Maybe you should ask them.”
N.C. State running back Zonovan Knight offered a more inclusive perspective on the chippiness between the clubs.
“I’m not sure. Most of the time I wasn’t really out there,” said Knight, who was named Wolfpack MVP by the Gator Bowl. “I just think it was a matter of both teams just simply being undisciplined.”
A.J. Rose, the MVP for the Kentucky side after rushing for a career-high 148 yards on 12 carries, said it was surprising that, late in the game, UK put itself in a position to cough it away after right after taking a two-possession lead. After going up 16-7 on Matt Ruffolo’s third field goal of the game, a pair of unsportsmanlike calls on the kickoff return were immediately followed by a late hit against N.C. State quarterback Bailey Hockman, combining to put the Wolfpack at UK’s 8-yard line. They scored two plays later to get within 16-14 less than a minute after Ruffolo’s kick.
“It was chippy throughout the whole game,” Rose said. “It was an emotional football game. Both teams wanted to be here. Both teams wanted to win, and unfortunately the flags were thrown and (there were) a couple penalties here or there. But we managed through it all to come out with the win. That’s all that matters.”
Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops cited an unfamiliar officiating crew — Saturday’s referees hailed from the Big 12 — in part for the rash of penalties, but ultimately laid the blame at his own feet.
“I’m disappointed with some of the things that went on during the game,” Stoops said. “We’ve got to get cleaned up. Some of that, I got to look at it, it’s hard to tell, but some of the unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, I’ve gotta get it cleaned up and I will. That’s not us and we’re not gonna accept that. … When you get into these bowl games, you’re not used to certain officials and I’ve got to do a better job preparing us for that.”
Jamin Davis, Kentucky’s junior linebacker who came up with an interception that led to Kentucky’s game-sealing touchdown in the waning minutes, chalked up the flare-ups to competitive spirit.
“Both teams were just fighting for that trophy,” Davis said with a smile. “It’s always gonna get chippy when there’s something to lose. You just gotta bounce back and everybody’s gotta keep their composure, I guess.”
This story was originally published January 2, 2021 at 5:45 PM.
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