Halftime analysis: The 3 things UK must do to finish off South Carolina
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Game day: Kentucky 41, South Carolina 18
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday night’s Kentucky-South Carolina football game at Kroger Field in Lexington, Ky.
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With Kentucky leading South Carolina 27-3 at halftime at Kroger Field, here are the three things that will determine whether or not the Wildcats will end the 2020 regular season with a victory:
1. Bury the Gamecocks on the first drive of the second half. According to the SEC Network, South Carolina brought only 46 scholarship players to Lexington for the game.
Kentucky’s “Big Blue Wall” is punishing the smallish South Carolina defensive front.
Having won the toss and deferred, UK will get the ball to start the second half.
A long, time-consuming drive for a touchdown would pretty well finish off the Gamecocks.
2. Keep South Carolina in obvious passing downs. Gamecocks running back Kevin Harris (14 carries, 81 yards) is terrific.
However, anytime Harris doesn’t have the ball, South Carolina’s offense is eminently stoppable.
True freshman quarterback Luke Doty is 6-of-13 passing for 45 yards with an interception and a lost fumble.
3. Cut out the bad penalties. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on UK’s Austin Dotson that followed Christopher Rodriguez’s 1-yard touchdown run forced Kentucky to kick off from 15 yards back.
That led to a 52-yard kickoff return by South Carolina’s Dakereon Joyner that set up a Parker White 48-yard field goal that produced the Gamecocks’ only points of the first half.
An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on UK wide receiver DeMarcus Harris turned a second-and-10 into a second-and-20 and sabotaged a Kentucky drive.
Simply put, Kentucky is the better team tonight. The only way South Carolina has any hope of rallying is if UK helps it.
This story was originally published December 5, 2020 at 9:17 PM.
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