Kentucky changes the script to their season, knocks off Gamecocks 31-28
By Paul Jordan
Halloween is still a couple of weeks way, but the Wildcats had fallen into a familiar script the last couple of weeks that ended up being true nightmares for their fans. Kentucky would come out lackadaisical on defense, shoot themselves in the foot with penalties and generally put themselves into a hole by halftime. For the second half, Kentucky’s offense would make a furious comeback but fall just short at the end. Cue credits, hello heartbreak city.
This week, the script started the same. Stephen Garcia and Marcus Lattimore had their way with the beleaguered Kentucky defense racking up 369 yards in the first half and rolling to a 28-10 halftime lead. It could have been a lot worse for the Wildcats as UK had three first half turnovers, the last one stopping a late USC drive near the end of the half.
You have to admit it did not look good for Kentucky, as the fans were turning on the home team Cats and the evil mastermind villain Steve Spurrier was licking his chops at the prospect of going 18-0 in his career versus Kentucky.
But something happened in the second half. Joker did a quick rewrite of the script and changed the ending as Kentucky had it’s biggest win in three seasons, toppling #10 South Carolina 31-28 behind a furious offensive onslaught.
On their second possession of the second half, Kentucky battled that third down demon four times successfully. On a third and three from the Kentucky 12, Mike Hartline hit Chris Matthews for a 8 yard pass. On a third and 10 from the UK 20, Hartline hit Matthews for a 13 yard gain. On third and 1 from the UK 42, Randall Cobb scampered 18 yards. And on a third and four from the South Carolina 5, Hartline hit La’Rod King for a 5 yard TD pass. Craig McIntosh followed with the extra point to make it 28-17.
The third down success continued on the next possession when on a third and fourteen from the UK 20, Hartline hit Matthews for 21 yards. On a third and thirteen from the UK 38, Hartline hit King for … a 12 yard pass. Uh oh. Same old Cats? Nope. Randall Cobb ran for 12 yards on the fourth down play. On the very next drive, Hartline hit Matthews for a 38 yard TD pass. The two point conversion failed, but Kentucky was alive, down 28-23.
Joker’s third down warriors got the ball back with 7:31 remaining and continued to work their magic. On a third and two from the South Carolina 48, Hartline hit Cobb for a 5 yard gain. On a third and three from the South Carolina 36, Hartline hit Matthews for 9 yards. Then on third and three from the South Carolina 20, Randall Cobb … ran for a loss of four. Normally this would be a death knell for Kentucky, but on the next play, Hartline hit a wide open Cobb for the TD. Cobb scored the 2 point conversion and UK was up 31-28.
Now it would not be Kentucky football if not for late game drama and the Gamecocks drove to the UK 20 with :11 left, burnt their last time out and in true Spurrier genius fashion went for the win instead of the tie. Cartier Rice tipped the Garcia pass to Anthony Mosley who held on for the interception and the Wildcats had broken Spurrier’s hold on them.
You may have noticed that I mentioned Hartline and Matthews name a good bit tonight and for a good reason. Hartline had a career night, going 33/42 for 349 yards and 4 TD’s. Chris Matthews hauled in 12 passes for 177 yards and a touchdown. Donald Russell, replacing an injured Derrick Locke had 111 all purpose yards. And Randall Cobb? He is the new all time touchdown leader at Kentucky, passing Craig Yeast. Guess that talk with John Calipari helped.
It’s a huge win for Joker Phillips and it’s a night to feel good to be a Wildcat again. The fans at Commonwealth certainly felt good about their Cats tonight:
photo courtesy of Chris Digg’s Twitter account
I’m in a generous mood. I’m going to ignore the 28 first half points and not comment. For complete game stats, go here:
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