The Kentucky football team tabbed their fourth victory of the season this afternoon with a 48-6 throttling of poor Murray State. In what was considered a “get right” game for the offense, they produced 582 total yards and scored a season high 48 points. On the other side of the ball, the defense rotated a bunch of guys into the game yet never allowed the Racers to get to the endzone. The Big Blue Nation can spend the rest of their Saturday night happy for the first time since September, but before we look to Texas, let’s take a deeper look at their win today.
The Offense Found the Endzone
The Kentucky offense has struggled all season to convert in the redzone (101st in America), but Bush Hamdan’s group kicked this trend today creating 34 points on six trips to the red zone. This offense had struggled all year to execute in key scenarios and maybe seeing things go right at these spots will spark some confidence heading into the last two games of the season. They also produced a 27.6% explosive play rate, their second highest mark of the season. While things weren’t perfect on offense early, the Cats settled in and produced a quality day on offense. Brock Vandagriff looked… hurt? He still produced a 182 yard, 2 touchdown performance in a half, but he didn’t look like he had his normal stuff today. Jamarion Wilcox led the way rushing with 123 yards and a score of his own. Hardley Gilmore and Anthony Brown-Stephens (2) both got their first touchdowns of the season, along with another contested catch touchdown from Ja’Mori Maclin.
Roster Check Time on Defense
The strength of the Murray State offense is running the football with a variety of guys, but the Kentucky defense was never threatened by this rushing attack. Only allowing 87 yards rushing, Kentucky kept the Racers behind the chains and in obvious passing situations all day. The Cats secondary also converted on (most) of their chances at the ball today as they finished with three interceptions, including two from Jordan Lovett. The third interception sealed the game, and cover, for the Cat’s as Jackson Schultz, a PWO from Louisville, soared through the air and caught the first interception of his career. The defense needs to continue getting healthy over the next week, but they did get two big pieces back in Josiah Hayes and Maxwell Hairston.
QB Controversy?
No, but I can’t write about the game without talking about Cutter Boley. The four-star freshman from Larue County completed his first pass and got the first two touchdowns of his career in a full half of action. With 130 yards and 9.3 yards per attempt, Hamdan showed a lot of confidence in Cutter to execute the offense at a high level and didn’t seem to put up any guard rails. He also showed off the legs with 21 rushing yards and at least one designed triple option was called while he was under center. Pretty much the entire roster got to play today, but the standout freshman in particular looked like a future cornerstone piece for the Cats.
I’m already starting to stretch takeaways from this game, so I’ll stop there. Kentucky needed a feel-good win to boost some morale around the program, and the team delivered. We also got to see a lot of the boys in stripes throughout the game, and since I personally watch football to see how many flags can be thrown (24 total) I had a blast as every play you never knew how many yards the play was actually going for. Will the effort today be the first step towards finishing this season on a high note? We’ll find out very quickly as the Cats travel to Austin next week to take on playoff-hopeful Texas. Good teams win, great teams cover.
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