Kentucky Wildcats Football: A Promising Day ends in Disappointment with loss to Bulldogs

The legend of Patrick Towles started off with a bang. Down 14-0 in the second quarter, Joker burnt the red shirt and trotted out the four star Kentucky quarterback from Highlands to take over for a struggling offense that was not operating well under starter Jalen Whitlow. And Towles did not disappoint.

He was 5-5 for 71 yards and an absolute touchdown bomb to La’ Rod King for 32 yards. It was now 14-7 and all of Big Blue Nation was ready to declare Towles the savior of Kentucky football. And then disaster struck.

Near the end of the first half Towles took a sack on a 12 yard loss and tweaked his ankle. Kentucky went into the half down  20-7. Little did we know that we would be down a quarterback as well. Towles came out onto the field in the second half on crutches and in a walking boot. His day was done.

But it wasn’t just freshmen at the quarterback position. There were freshmen all over the defense as well. Ashley Lowery went out of the game with an injury. Martaveous Neloms also went down and never returned. Fred Tiller, Daron Blaylock, and JD Harmon were freshmen defensive backs that saw major time in today’s game. Daron’s twin brother Zack burned his red shirt and saw some action as well.

Little wonder why Mississippi State was 10-18 on third downs. Time and time again the Wildcats would hold the Bulldogs to third and medium or third and long, only to be beat on a long pass or a run. MSU was also 1-1 on fourth down conversions.