With another Kentucky Wildcats football season upon us, the staff at Wildcat Blue Nation are digging into their memory banks recounting our favorite moments in Wildcat football. Over the next month, we will be looking at these games and sharing our thoughts and memories on them. It’s not a countdown, but a look back at what has made Wildcats football important to us and what stood out. Hopefully Mark Stoops and his staff will be able to add a few more special moments this upcoming season.
photo by al.com
Bowl games are important milestones for any college football program. Although the Kentucky football program has not been to any over the last few years, they went to plenty of them in the late 2000s. In fact, most of them ended in a UK victory and created several memorable moments in UK football history. One such memorable game is the 2007 Music City Bowl.
The 2007 Music City Bowl was held in Nashville, Tennessee on December 31, 2007. It featured the Kentucky Wildcats taking on the Florida State Seminoles. Both teams entered that game with a 7-5 overall record and a 4-4 conference record during the regular season. During the 2007 season, Florida State had been ranked as high as No. 19 in the AP polls. They appeared in the rankings for a total of two weeks that season. Although this may seem shocking to some of the newer Wildcat fans, UK had been ranked as high as No. 8 in the AP polls twice that season. They had also been ranked for a total of eight weeks during that season.
Kentucky did have a bit of an advantage entering the game. Florida State entered the game without 34 of their players due to injuries, violations of team rules, and an academic cheating scandal. For Kentucky, this was their second consecutive trip to the Music City Bowl. The previous year in 2006, the Wildcats defeated the Clemson Tigers by a score of 28-20.
Kentucky immediately took advantage of the depleted Seminoles team. On the first UK offensive drive of the game, Andre Woodson threw a 14-yard strike to Jacob Tamme for a touchdown. Florida State didn’t back down though. The Seminoles acquired a touchdown of their own and the first quarter ended 7-7. Much of the same was seen in the second quarter. Woodson put UK back on top as he threw for another touchdown. This time it was a 13-yard pass to Stevie Johnson. However, Florida State answered once again with a touchdown. They intercepted Woodson and returned it for a touchdown. The second quarter ended 14-14.
The scoring really began to open up in the second half. Early in the third quarter, Woodson threw for his third touchdown pass of the game. It was a 2-yard pass to Rafael Little. Then, UK was finally able to hold of the Seminoles from scoring and put together consecutive scores for themselves. Late in the third quarter, Tony Dixon rushed for a 4-yard touchdown and put the Wildcats on top 28-14 as they entered the fourth quarter.
Florida State was able to score quickly in the fourth quarter and trim the lead to 28-21. Luckily, UK was able to answer back with a score and make the deficit bigger again. Woodson completed a 38-yard touchdown to Johnson to make the score 35-21. It was Woodson’s fourth touchdown pass of the game and Johnson’s second receiving score of the game. Florida State was able to score another touchdown in the final minutes of the game, but it wouldn’t be enough. UK held on to win 35-28.
Although UK entered the game with an advantage, it was a great game with memorable moments. The attendance for the game was 68,661, which set a new record for the Music City Bowl. The game MVP was Woodson, who was also the MVP in the 2006 Music City Bowl. The victory gave the Wildcats an 8-5 record on the season. It was also the first time UK football had back-to-back bowl wins since 1952.