Kentucky football: Night of horrors for Wildcats who bleed mediocrity

A few treats from an otherwise scary night of horrors

Kentucky did get a few treats from players who returned from injuries including wide receivers Josh Ali and Cummings.

Cummings had been out two games after an arm injury and Ali the same from a leg injury.

It looked like Kentucky would break the spell Starkville held over them early on when Ali returned a punt 74-yards for a touchdown darting across the field from right to left and then following a wall of blockers down the sideline to the endzone with not one Bulldog laying a finger on him.

That gave the Cats a 7-0 lead with 7:19 to play in the opening quarter.

It was the first punt return for Kentucky since Lynn Bowden brought one back 58 yards on January 1, 2019, in the Belk Bowl against Penn State in the Citrus Bowl.

Kicker Matt Ruffalo split the uprights with a 41-yard field goal with 12:14 left in the half on a 14 play drive that took 6:32 off the clock to keep the Air Raid offense off the field. Ruffalo had been battling a few demons on kicks of late but seems to have shaken that haunt.

Kentucky pinned State at their 2-yard line thanks to a 70-yard punt by Colin Goodfellow and the defense delivered forcing a punt. He booted a similar one against Georgia and is the first player in Kentucky football history to now have two career punts of at least 70 yards. He leads the SEC averaging 46.7 yards per kick.

DeMarcus Harris finally got some action and delivered with back-to-back catches, one for a first down and the next a 17-yard touchdown. He only had four catches coming into the game for 45 yards.

That’s all the treats we saw otherwise it looked like Michael Jackson’s Thriller video with zombies walking around.

Kentucky has now put itself into a must-win situation next week when they host bitter rival Tennessee in Lexington. They will need Big Blue Nation to help bring them back to life.