Redemption! Cats show incredible heart, beat Auburn 21-14
By Staff
Finally, UK snapped one of those streaks. Unfazed by Auburn’s gaudy 5-1 record or the “Paper Tigers” 7th ranked NCAA offense, Rich Brook’s Wildcat’s marched into Jordan Hare Stadium and played smashmouth football and emerged 21-14 victors.
The one thing that this team has that has been missing in past UK teams is HEART. Despite losing QB Mike Hartline last week, this team has not folded and went home. They gave South Carolina all they wanted last week and then marched into enemy territory and dominated a team that was ranked in the Top 25 just a week ago.
For UK to be able to win on the road against a “name SEC school”, they first had to exorcise some demons. UK had a very nice first drive stall out at the Auburn 20 and the Lones Seiber kicked and returned for a TD. Auburn 7-0. And suddenly the ghosts of Florida and Alabama came storming back when Kentucky could not convert on it’s next possession. But then UK responded. Calvin Harrison intercepted a Chris Todd pass and you could feel the defense starting to build confidence that they could handle these Auburn Tigers.
There was another sign that this would be UK’s game when Derrick Locke lost 6 yards and fumbled, but recovered his own fumble. The UK offense, aside from a nice first drive, was ineffective as freshman QB Morgan Newton struggled to get his bearings. The defense played tough and forced another “3 and out” and the Jordan Hare crowd started to realize this would not be another 499 yard performance.
Meanwhile, the UK offense got a mini drive to the Auburn 37 under it’s belt and opted to punt. Another 3 and out from Auburn followed and Kentucky got the ball back at it’s own 47. Slowly but surely, UK started to drive and a 23 yard pass to Chris Matthews had UK in the red zone. Morgan Newton scored a few plays later on a 4 yard run for his first NCAA TD and UK was tied at 7. After a couple of traded possessions, Auburn’s offense finally got in gear and scored on a 4th and inches right before halftime and Auburn took a 14-7 lead.
Newton was ineffective the first series of the second half and Auburn started marching the ball again from it’s 5 yard line. The Tigers put together an impressive 67 yard drive that fizzled out at the UK 28 with 3 straight incompletions. Wildcat hearts got nervous again after another ineffective drive and Auburn seemed ready to put the game away. A nice Tydalacka punt pinned the Tigers at their 3 however.
Will Fidler replaced Morgan Newton late in the 3rd and this drive resulted in a missed Lones Seiber FG. UK’s hopes seemed dashed when the dormant Auburn offense struck on a 37 yard pass to the UK 32 early in the 4th quarter. Then the Tigers self destructed, committing 4 penalties and effectively removing themselves from FG range.
Then UK’s playmakers took over. Derrick Locke ripped off a 20 yard run. Alfonso Smith had a 20 yard run. Will Fidler (!) scrambled for 8. A couple of Randall Cobb runs pushed it to the 2 when Will Fidler scored his first career TD on a dive. UK’s D forced another 3 and out and then Randall Cobb took over on a galloping 61 yard run to the Auburn 3 out of the Wildcat formation. Then a couple of plays later, Cobb became the third UK QB to score a rushing TD as UK took the lead 21-14.
Auburn drove the ball to the UK’s 44 but then 2 more penalties killed whatever drive they had and UK held on for the big road victory. With the victory, UK ended a 16 game Auburn winning streak in the series.
There were plenty of heroes for UK. Both Locke and Cobb rushed for over 100 yards. Paul Warford played a hell of a game at CB. And the defense stepped up big, holding the Auburn offense to 315 yards, or 184 yards below their average. Will Fidler showed poise and managed his part of the game. And the whole team has to be recognized as UK did not commit a penalty the entire game.
And there was promise in Morgan Newton. It was a tough game to make his debut in, but he did not have any turnovers and showed that he had a rocket for an arm. He barely missed Chris Matthews on a beautiful pass and when he gets his timing right with his receivers, you can envision bombs all over Commonwealth.
And now, the future looks bright for the Cats. Most pundits had UK at 2-4 at this point in the season, but UK did steal one of the two road games needed to make this a special season. The Cats stand at 3-3 after 6 games and should be favored in the next 4 games. Despite all the naysayers and verbal abuse this team has taken from the fans, UK can be 7-3 heading into the Georgia and Tennessee games.
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