Three takeaways from Kentucky football’s dominating win at Vanderbilt
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Game day: Kentucky at Vanderbilt
Click below to view more of Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s 38-14 University of Kentucky football victory over Vanderbilt at Nashville, Tenn.
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Three takeaways from Kentucky football’s 38-14 pasting of Vanderbilt on Saturday at Vanderbilt Stadium:
1. Thankfully, Eddie Gran is one stubborn guy
Kentucky’s offensive coordinator has taken some heat — some heat? — for the conservative run-based offense the Wildcats have employed since Sawyer Smith was lost to the medical tent and Lynn Bowden was moved from wide receiver to starting quarterback. So when A.J. Rose fumbled away the football and Vandy scooped-and-scored on a 67-yard return for a 14-3 lead with 4:36 left in the first quarter, you might have thought Gran would change his game plan.
No way, no how.
“I’ve seen that movie before,” said the OC after the game. “I don’t want to see it again.”
The Cats stuck to their grind-it-out guns and the patience paid off as slowly, and then all at once the visitors rolled over the downtrodden Commodores, now 2-8. Kentucky rolled up 401 yards rushing, including 279 in the first half. The Cats ended up with a season-high 528 total yards to Vandy’s 198.
“Methodical” was the way head coach Mark Stoops put it.
Here’s another way of putting it: Domination. Redshirt freshman Chris Rodriguez rushed for 129 yards and two scores on just 15 carries. Bowden rushed for 110 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries. Kavosiey Smoke just missed joining the 100-yard club, finishing with 96 yards and a TD on 15 carries.
Also give credit to John Schlarman, the offensive line coach, and his big guys up front. Since first the Terry Wilson injury and then the Smith injuries, the Cats have embraced their identity as a grunt-and-grind offensive team, even when they fell behind early.
“We didn’t flinch,” said Stoops.
2. We should not overlook the brilliance of Lynn Bowden
As well as rushing for 100-plus yards, Bowden completed eight of 10 passes for 104 yards and a score. True, 28 of those yards came on a third-and-26 screen pass that Smoke converted into an improbable first down. (Well, maybe not that improbable, it is Vanderbilt.) And Bowden missed on a couple of deep balls in which he lamented afterward he should have hit.
Still, after not being much of a threat in the passing game with Bowden at QB, Kentucky threw the ball enough Saturday to at least keep the Commodores honest. Josh Ali caught three passes for 27 yards and a score. Clevan Thomas had 45 yards on two catches. Bryce Oliver had a pair of catches for 18 yards.
Where Bowden was at his best, of course, was running the ball. Or maybe we should say slithering, side-stepping, scrambling, even lowering his shoulder to run over a couple of Commodore defenders. Only once in his 17 carries was Bowden caught behind the line of scrimmage. Twelve of his 17 carries went for five yards or more.
Maybe UK’s most impressive drive of the game came at the end of the first half when Bowden actually directed a two-minute offense that covered 75 yards in 13 plays, took almost seven minutes off the clock and scored a touchdown with all of 11 seconds remaining. You can’t do much better than that.
3. A fourth straight bowl game for UK is all but clinched
The Cats are now 5-5 overall and 3-5 in the SEC. They need only beat FCS team and Ohio Valley Conference member UT Martin next Saturday at Kroger Field for the sixth win and the fourth straight year in which Stoops’ team has reached bowl eligibility.
That’s why the Vandy game was so important. A loss to the ‘Dories, who were coming off a 56-0 embarrassment at Florida, would have left the Cats at 4-6 and in need of wins over both UT Martin and then Louisville in the season finale to reach bowl eligibility. And you know Louisville would love nothing more than to knock the Cats out of a bowl.
And you wondered how Kentucky would react after last week’s disappointing 17-13 loss to Tennessee. After all, the Cats were 0-3 on the road coming into Saturday’s game. And Stoops still remembered last year’s 24-7 loss at Tennessee after a long bus ride, so he changed up his team’s Music City routine, holding a practice in the Tennessee Titans’ practice facility on Friday.
The strategy worked. Kentucky was in such control Smith played a series in the fourth quarter — “To knock the dust off,” said Stoops — and sophomore Walker Wood got a couple of series on defense. Stoops and defensive coordinator Brad White got to see a ton of young players take the field on defense. Vandy moved the ball down the field on the third-teamers but couldn’t score. The Cats made a stop on fourth-and-goal from the five.
Call it the cherry on top.
This story was originally published November 16, 2019 at 8:48 PM.
