Rapid Reaction: Grieving Kentucky gets offensive to beat Vandy
On the week when Kentucky offensive line coach John Schlarman passed away from cancer, the previously struggling Wildcats offense put together a big game on Saturday to hold off winless Vanderbilt, 38-35, in Lexington.
Kentucky’s offensive line paid tribute to their late coach on the first play, then played a strong game, paving the way for over 300 yards rushing and keeping QB Terry Wilson upright with relative ease.
Wilson returned after missing UK’s previous game against Georgia and was especially sharp in the victory. Wilson threw two first-half touchdown passes and helped Kentucky post another strong rushing day, adding a 32-yard touchdown run. Kentucky took an early 14-0 advantage, then held off a surprisingly strong day from a Vanderbilt offense which was last in the conference in scoring coming in.
Vandy had a solid day from QB Ken Seals, who had a first half touchdown and from sophomore running back Keyon Henry-Brooks, who surpassed 100 rushing yards by the beginning of the fourth quarter before leaving the game with an injury. Red-zone QB Mike Wright both passed and rushed for touchdowns as Vandy rallied to make the game competitive.
Kentucky (3-4) received the opening kickoff and drove 75 yards in 9 plays, ending the drive with a 15-yard scoring pass from Wilson to senior tight end Justin Rigg with 10:15 left in the first quarter. After Vandy mistakenly fielded UK’s bouncing kickoff on a fair catch at the 1-yard line, the Commodores managed one first down, but then punted back to Kentucky. UK followed with a 6-play, 68-yard drive, culminating in Wilson’s 32-yard scamper around right end with 3:48 to play in the opening quarter.
Leading 14-0, Kentucky seemed in excellent shape after a quarter. Vandy answered with a 34-yard connection from Seals to Chris Pierce in the end zone to draw the Commodores to within 14-7 early in the second quarter. Kentucky answered with a 79-yard, 7-play drive that finished with sophomore tight end Keaton Upshaw hauling in Wilson’s second TD pass of the day, this time from 21 yards.
The Commodores (0-6) answered with a nearly 7-minute drive that covered 78 yards on 17 plays, with Wright hitting tight end Ben Bresnahan for a 2-yard score on 4th and goal. That score drew the Commodores to within 21-14, but Kentucky drove for a 28-yard field goal by Chance Poore to end the half.
Kentucky forced a three and out to open the second half, then relied on a 39-yard Josh Ali punt return to set up sophomore running back Chris Rodriguez for a 2-yard touchdown with 10:34 left in the third quarter. Vandy responded with another lengthy drive, this one eating up 7:41 in clock and covering 75 yards in 15 plays, with Wright running into the end zone on 4th and goal from the 2 to cap the drive. So Kentucky led 31-21 after three quarters.
After scoring on every possession of the day, Kentucky was stopped for the first time at the end of the third quarter. Vandy took over and drove to the UK 40, but a key sack from Jamar “Boogie” Watson and Josh Paschal forced a Vanderbilt punt. Kentucky answered with a 74-yard scoring run from Rodriguez, which vaulted the Wildcats over 300 total yards rushing.
The Commodores made things interesting with two touchdowns in the final 3:13 but the Wildcats fielded an onside kick with 30 seconds left and ran out the clock.
Kentucky is scheduled to play next week at Alabama. The other two remaining games on Kentucky’s schedule are at Florida and at home against South Carolina. Vanderbilt is next slated to play at home against Florida next Saturday.
Very entertaining and even game. Too bad anyone had to lose. Congrats to UK for the win.
Probably more just Vandy being vandy
I’m so old that I have seen UK lose every way imaginable. I’m thinking if Vandy had gotten the onside kick, we lose.
Everyone puts on an offensive showing against Vandy, but not everyone let’s the Dores hang 35 on them – at home.
And not everyone pulls all their starters in the 4th quarter like UK did either.
Someone correct me if i’m wrong but UK pulled nearly all starters on both of the sides of the ball for the 4th.
Yea we did…it was a blow out that was never in doubt….we use to do this alot when we sucked…score points late after the other team pulled it’s starters and make the score look close.
Obviously the defense plays to its competition tho…they have all year and that’s dissapointing.
The offense still looked bad today in all areas. Stats look good but the film will tell another story. No explosiveness and a 74 yd run don’t count honestly.
We really need some receivers and they are out there. WR is one spot you do not have to have elite talent from the HS ranks in recruiting. You can find them with scouting and UK needs to stop worrying about stars on a receiver and potential. They need to find guys that are just good route runners and no how to get open not fast guys. There have been plenty of great college receivers that don’t run a 4.4 or 4.5 or aren’t 6’4.
I think we have “good enough” talent at WR.
Today showed it… it’s amazing how easy it is to move the ball on simple dig and crossing routes.
It was nice to actually see those types of plays being called. I think Harris, Oliver and Drennen are all solid, young dude receivers who can make a difference in the coming years so long as Stoops puts a little slack in Gran’s leash.
Low and behold, it makes the run game more affective too.
Loved the game. Loved the tribute. Loved Vandy declining the penalty even more. Class all the way around
Vanderbilt finished with Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, and Missouri, and after probably losing their #1 running back yesterday for the season, as well as maybe one defensive player, according to my stats, that leaves Vanderbilt with 56 players. If any combination of 4 players stop playing for any reason (transfer portal, injury, covid, etc.) then at 52 players, according to the rules, Vanderbilt cannot play any more games? I guess they could put some walk-ons on scholarship, but they have very few.
To all the Vanderbilt fans that think Derek Mason is the problem, you are only correct if you can justify that he is the problem because he cannot recruit athletes capable of winning the SEC. Since the Vanderbilt Rape Trial, it is my understanding that the James Franklin loophole has been removed, and Vanderbilt is back to recruiting on its 1960’s restrictions. 1 in 11 high school seniors that apply get accepted, and there are very few exceptions for football. If you look at the top 1000 recruits, on average 90 of them should be able to gain admission to Vanderbilt. That includes recruits like Mac Jones, so an SEC caliber Einstein may be too smart to play football at Vanderbilt. Only those players that think they can show the other SEC schools that they made a mistake by not recruiting them end up playing at Vanderbilt.
I don’t think Mason can be blamed for this. I got to see a replay of this game this morning. The coaching was great in this game on both sides of the ball. The difference, of course, is the level of talent. Had the Vandy coaches had the Auburn roster yesterday, their gameplan would have worked and would have brought a victory. When defensive players were at the point of attack but just got beat mano e mano. The play where Terry Wilson ran the counter for a touchdown is a perfect example. The backside OL pulled to lead the counter, and Vandy’s defense had a DL game into the vacant B gap. Wilson should have been stopped for a big loss and possible fumble. At the same time the Sam and force corner were in place to break up the counter run, but they got taken out of the play. Wilson easily avoided the initial tackle and turned the opposite corner for an easy 6.
Vanderbilt’s defense has to give a large pad in order to not get beat deep. So, the middle of the field is wide open with great YAC chances. The average fan doesn’t understand this. They understand it when you ask them if they would play their outfielders in shallow if Aaron Judge was at bat, and the pitcher in the game had a 5.20 ERA. Every SEC opponent is Aaron Judge at bat, and Vandy is lucky to have defenders that are like pitchers with a 5.20 ERA. Vandy’s players are below the value of replacement players from the rest of the league.