The unsung heroes who made UK’s thrilling Belk Bowl win over Virginia Tech possible
For reasons good (a record-shattering individual performance) and not as good (his role in the pregame fracas), Lynn Bowden will always be the face of Kentucky’s thrill-packed, 37-30 victory over Virginia Tech in the 2019 Belk Bowl.
Yet even with Bowden’s on-field brilliance, one of the most exhilarating moments of the Mark Stoops coaching era would not have happened without some under-the-radar efforts from other Wildcats.
Let’s tip the cap to the unsung heroes of Kentucky’s Belk Bowl victory:
▪ Josh Ali. The UK wide receiver’s 13-yard touchdown catch from Bowden with 15 seconds left in the game put the Wildcats ahead to stay. As long as Kentucky football highlight packages are shown on video boards, you are going to be seeing that catch.
Yet it was an earlier reception by the 6-foot, 188-pound junior from Hollywood, Fla., that was the pivotal moment that allowed the Cats to win.
What would become UK’s 18-play, 85-yard, game-winning drive was in very real danger of stalling after nine plays.
Kentucky was facing fourth-and-7 at its own 43-yard line. Fourth-and-long was the worst conceivable scenario for a ground-hugging UK offense playing wide receiver Bowden as its quarterback.
Taking the snap, Bowden rolled to his right. There was only one UK receiver on that side of the field. That receiver, Ali, made a diving catch of a low Bowden throw that gave Kentucky a first down at the Tech 48.
“Lynn rolled out. I knew I was the only guy over there to get the first down,” Ali said.
Without Ali’s high-degree-of-difficulty catch, Kentucky would have been finished in the game.
“Just a huge play,” Stoops said.
▪ UK offensive line. On that 18-play, 85-yard, game-winning drive, Kentucky had one play — Bowden’s 13-yard scoring pass to Ali — of more than 9 yards.
The rest of the drive was a grind-it-out battle of wills with a Virginia Tech defense that had the box stacked.
Because of the nature of Kentucky’s ground-reliant offense, any penalty or negative yardage play from scrimmage would have likely doomed UK.
So for 18 plays, the Kentucky offensive front had the discipline and concentration to commit no penalties and allow no plays to lose yardage.
▪ Matt Ruffolo and Grant McKinniss. Place-kicking was not automatic for Kentucky in 2019. Over the course of the season, UK missed four extra points and five of 14 field-goal tries.
Yet in a Belk Bowl where every point mattered, Ruffolo, the 5-11, 216-pound junior walk-on from Centerville, Ohio, was money.
He cashed a 40-yard field goal that, fleetingly, tied the game at 17. Ruffolo also made all four of his PATs — most crucially the pressure-packed final one, that pushed UK into a 31-30 lead 15 seconds from the game’s end.
Holder McKinniss also had a good day, twice getting the ball placed for successful Ruffolo kicks after difficult snaps from center.
▪ Brandin Echols. With four seconds left in the game, Virginia Tech was behind 31-30 and was 75 yards from the end zone.
With no other choice, the Hokies launched a “multi-lateral” play.
Quarterback Hendon Hooker threw a forward pass to Tayvion Robinson at the Tech 31; Robinson lateraled to Damon Hazelton, who lateraled to James Mitchell.
The Hokies, however, were not engaged in improvisation. The multiple laterals on the offensive right side of the field were designed to suck all the Kentucky defenders to that side.
Mitchell then lateraled the ball back to Hooker.
Virginia Tech’s QB tried to throw a backward pass all the way across the field. It appeared Virginia Tech had blockers set up along the left sideline. Had the ball gotten over there, things might have become scary for Kentucky.
Before Hooker could get the ball to the left side, UK cornerback Echols decked him.
Hooker fumbled the ball, and Kentucky outside linebacker Jordan Wright returned it for a 28-yard touchdown.
▪ Mitch Barnhart and Eli Capilouto. In big-time college football, these are impatient times.
Just this season in the Southeastern Conference, a second-year head coach (Arkansas’ Chad Morris), a third-year head coach (Mississippi’s Matt Luke) and a fourth-year head coach (Missouri’s Barry Odom) were fired.
After two games of Mark Stoops’ fourth season as Kentucky head man, the UK coach’s record stood at 12-26.
Yet the UK administration, school president Capilouto and athletics director Barnhart believed in Stoops’ plan and stayed with the coach through those lean early years.
Starting with the third game of his fourth season, Stoops has gone 32-18.
Thanks to some administrative patience, Kentucky has four straight winning seasons; three wins in the past four Governor’s Cup games; two straight bowl victories; and the best two-year UK football win total (18 victories) since 1976 and ‘77 (19).
Mark Stoops (44-44 as UK coach) now needs 16 wins to tie Bear Bryant (60-23-5) as the winningest coach in Kentucky Wildcats football history.
