By LARRY VAUGHT
Don’t try convincing Kentucky coach Mark Stoops that winning 24-17 at Southern Mississippi to open the season was not impressive.
“To win a close game on the road the way we did takes a lot of courage, and we did that,” said Stoops. “We can get the offense fixed and we will.”
The Kentucky defense, which was shredded by Southern Miss in the second half of last season’s season-opening loss, forced four fumbles and recovered three that led to two scores — including a fumble return for a score by Denzil Ware. The Cats had eight tackles for loss, including three by Josh Allen among his five stops. Linebacker Courtney Love had nine tackles — and in the first half UK had 20 players with at least one tackle to show the depth the Cats have on defense finally.
But the Kentucky offense did not have the dominant running attack most expected. Kentucky had just 254 yards of total offense, and had 112 of those yards by early in the second quarter. In the second half, UK had EIGHT-SEVEN YARDS TOTAL.
Benny Snell, a 1,000-yard rusher last season, gained just 71 yards on 21 carries with a long run of 10 yards. Sihiem King had seven carries for only nine yards.
Quarterback Stephen Johnson was 11-for-20 passing for 176 yards and one score. Tight end C.J. Conrad had three catches for 97 yards — one went for a touchdown and another was for 59 yards. However, in the second half UK seemed to forget about him just as it did most of last season.
Stoops said the offense just missed on many plays. He called the win a “thing of beauty to him” — but I don’t think that’s the description most UK fans would use. However, remember Kentucky did lose to this same team in Lexington last year to open the season and still finished the regular season with seven wins.
“Last year we threw the ball for almost 400 yards in first half (against Southern Mississippi) and we lost,” Stoops said.
And if you are looking for a positive, consider senior punter Matt Panton. The graduate transfer from Columbia looked like he belonged in the SEC and gave UK a weapon it lacked last season. In his first game he averaged 42 yards per punt on nine kicks. Even better, he put the ball inside the 20-yard line four times. Two of those were at the 1-yard line.
Stoops said he was “really big” with what he did.
“He just was consistent, gave us some good rolls,” Stoops said of the Australian native.
On the negative side, UK had to call a timeout late in the game when it had too many players on the field as Southern Miss was getting ready to punt. It also had a delay of game penalty on a key third down late in the game when it was trying to protect the lead.
Those are just careless, sloppy mistakes that a veteran team like Kentucky has this year should not make.
“I know a lot of people are going to have their own opinions, but I loved it,” Stoops said about the win.
And since he’s the coach, that’s all that really matters today.