Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 63-3 loss to No. 1 Alabama
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Game day: Alabama 63, Kentucky 3
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Alabama football game at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
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Five things you need to know from Kentucky football’s 63-3 loss to No. 1 Alabama at Bryant-Denny Stadium:
1. In this season of COVID-19 and contact tracing, Kentucky was without its breakout offensive star of the season (running back Christopher Rodriguez), its breakout defensive star of 2020 (middle linebacker Jamin Davis), its starting tight end (Justin Rigg) and All-America punter (Max Duffy) for reasons thought to be related to the pandemic.
Also sidelined were backup linebackers D’Eryk Jackson and Torrance Davis and defensive backs Taj Dodson and Jamari Brown.
Meanwhile, starting right guard Luke Fortner and backup tight end Brendan Bates also did not play due to injuries.
Being down so many key players is, obviously, less than the ideal setup when one is playing the nation’s top-ranked team in their home stadium.
2. For one half, Kentucky moved the ball. Terry Wilson played an effective first half, completing 10 of 16 passes for 120 yards before halftime. UK had 11 first downs and controlled the ball for 20:40 of the 30-minute half.
On three straight first-half drives, Kentucky reached the Alabama 25-yard line — or better.
Alas, UK did not finish drives. Rather than touchdowns, Kentucky settled for three field goal tries — Matt Ruffolo made one, missed one and did not get to attempt one due to a high snap.
The second half was offensive misery for UK. Wilson was pulled in the third quarter after throwing a pick-six. With young Kentucky quarterbacks Joey Gatewood (three) and Beau Allen (two) getting the game’s final five drives, the UK offense never got in sync.
Kentucky finished with 179 yards of total offense. It was the fifth time in six games that UK has failed to reach 300 yards.
3. Mac vs. the Cats. Alabama quarterback Mac Jones, the former UK recruiting commit, was removed from the game in the third quarter with the Crimson Tide up 42-3 so touted true freshman QB Bryce Young could get some reps.
By the exalted level of Jones’ 2020 play, he had a so-so game vs. Kentucky, completing 16 of 24 passes for 230 yards with two touchdown throws and one interception (Kelvin Joseph).
4. West is best. As Kentucky coach, Mark Stoops is now 4-14 against SEC West foes — the wins are over Mississippi State (2016, 2018 and 2020) and Arkansas (2019).
Alabama, meanwhile, has now won 30 games in a row vs. the SEC East. The Crimson Tide’s most recent loss vs. an East foe came at South Carolina in 2010.
5. Oh-for-the-Top 10. Stoops has six wins over Top 25 teams as UK coach, the third most in school history. However, Stoops is now 0-12 vs. Top 10 teams and 0-5 against the Top 5 as UK coach.
The Fashion Show
For its eighth game of 2020, Kentucky wore blue helmets, white jerseys with blue letters and numbers and blue pants.
Since the start of 2015, UK is now 3-8 in blue-white-blue.
This story was originally published November 21, 2020 at 7:12 PM.
