Three takeaways from Kentucky football’s win over 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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Three takeaways from Kentucky football’s 41-18 win over South Carolina on Saturday night.
1. A fun night on Kentucky’s Senior Night
Kentucky hasn’t had a lot of those this trying play-in-a-pandemic 2020-21 season. Not a lot since that 34-7 victory at Tennessee way back on Oct. 18. The Wildcats had won just one game since then, and even that 38-35 victory over Vanderbilt nearly turned into too-close-for-comfort down the stretch.
This 23-point victory over the visiting Gamecocks was different. Playing with an interim head coach in Mike Bobo, and hurt by opt-outs, injuries and COVID-19, South Carolina brought just 46 scholarship players to Lexington. And for much of the night this looked like a game of Kentucky’s first-string versus South Carolina’s second-string.
Not that UK’s seniors were about to complain. After all, Saturday could have been their final game at Kroger Field if they don’t take advantage of the NCAA ruling that allows them to return for another season.
Senior quarterback Terry Wilson completed 17 of 26 passes for 201 yards, while rushing for 46 yards on 14 carries. Senior running back A.J. Rose rushed for 101 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries. Senior wide receiver Josh Ali caught five passes for 35 yards. Senior tight end Justin Rigg caught three passes for 72 yards.
Senior linemen Drake Jackson, Luke Fortner and Landon Young paved the way for UK’s run game to gain 291 yards on just 45 carries. That included a 79-yard touchdown from Chris Rodriguez that closed out the scoring on the night.
On defense, senior outside linebacker Boogie Watson finished with a career-high eight tackles and forced two fumbles.
“We desperately wanted to finish the right way,” Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops said. “And I think we did that.”
2. Give Kevin Harris and South Carolina some credit
Especially Harris. The Gamecocks’ sophomore running back refused to go down without a fight. He finished the night with 210 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries. He had 59- and 33-yard runs, breaking several tackles along the way. It was the second game of a 10-game schedule in which Harris rushed for more than 200 yards. It was the fifth game in which he rushed for more than 100 yards.
“He lived up to the hype,” Watson said. “He didn’t go down on first contact. It took a group effort to get him down.”
Despite being short-handed, South Carolina didn’t quit. Down 34-3 with 7:28 left in the third quarter, they scored on an 86-yard drive, highlighted by Harris’ 33-yard run. In the fourth quarter, the Gamecocks executed a fake punt on fourth-and-7 that extended an eventual touchdown drive to pull within 34-18 with 5:12 left. Fortunately for Kentucky, Rodriguez ripped off his 79-yard score on the first play of the Cats’ next possession.
“I want to give South Carolina credit,” Stoops said. “Giving up 300 yards rushing, I don’t like that. That’s probably why I have this huge pain in my neck right now. But you have to give them credit.”
Meanwhile, the school’s search for the successor to he fired Will Muschamp generated plenty of news Saturday. After word leaked that Louisville head coach Scott Satterfield had talked with South Carolina officials on Friday, Satterfield told the Courier Journal that he was staying at Louisville. And news broke Saturday night that Louisiana head coach Billy Napier, who also reportedly was interviewed for the job, told officials he was staying at Louisiana.
Then late Saturday came news, first from The Athletic, that South Carolina will hire Oklahoma assistant head coach Shane Beamer as its new head coach.
3. Now come the postseason decisions for Kentucky
A bowl game is first on the list. Stoops said last Monday that he would take the temperature of the team before making a decision on postseason play. (The NCAA has removed the six-win requirement for this 2020 bowl season.) In the postgame press conference, Stoops said there would be a team meeting on Sunday and that the coach would talk with AD Mitch Barnhart before making a decision.
“Most definitely,” said Rose when asked if he wanted to go a bowl game. “It’s a chance at another win.”
The staff is also on Stoops’ postseason agenda. When asked about staff evaluations, the coach said the post-game was not the time to answer questions with regard to that subject. “Don’t press me on any of that today,” he said.
That didn’t seem like a ringing endorsement for the status quo. With rumors swirling of possible changes on the offensive staff, we’ll see what happens moving forward.
For now, the team and coaches said they just wanted to enjoy the win. Stoops said when he was becoming aggravated toward the end of the game, veteran coach Jeff Jagodzinski, brought in to help with the offensive line after the death of John Schlarman, told the head coach that wins are too hard to come by not to enjoy. This was UK’s fourth win in a 10-game All-SEC schedule. But the Cats were 4-4 against the eight conference teams originally on the schedule. Add four wins against non-conference opponents and Kentucky could have easily finished 8-4.
“That’s for you to write,” Stoops said smiling. “Put it out there.”
This story was originally published December 6, 2020 at 12:24 AM.
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