Cats Handle Adversity, Golden Eagles in Season Opener
Kentucky’s home opener on Saturday was delayed by over two hours at the start and ended early after yet another lightning delay. But when the dust, or in this case the clouds, finally settled, the Cats came away with a win in the 2024 kickoff.
In between delays, the Cats were dominant on both sides of the ball. In just over a half of football, UK had 317 yards of total offense, while holding Southern Miss to 131. Quarterback Brock Vandagriff, starting for the first time, connected on 12 of 18 through the air for 169 yards and three touchdowns. Kentucky used a committee of rushers, who carried the ball 24 times for 148 yards, led by Demie Sumo-Karngbaye, who had eight carries for 59 yards and a touchdown.
Defensively, the Cats had two sacks (by J.J. Weaver and Tre’vonn Rybka), seven tackles for loss, two interceptions (Jamon Dumas-Johnson and J.Q. Hardaway) and two pass breakups (D’Eryk Jackson and Alex Afari).
The UK defense held Southern Miss to just 31 plays in the game. On three straight drives, the Cats forced the Golden Eagles into three-and-outs. It was at that point that Kentucky took control of the game, expanding its lead from 7-0 in the first quarter to 24-0 by the half.
UK extended its lead early in the third quarter when Vandagriff connected with Jordan Dingle for a five-yard scoring pass, making it 31-0.
Shortly thereafter, lightning was once again detected near the stadium and play was halted with 9:56 left in the third quarter. After yet another delay that appeared to have no end in sight, the teams agreed to end the game.
Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops liked how his team handled the situation and the adversity, especially in a season opener.
“I was proud of our team,” Stoops said. “We felt like that this could happen today. The players handled that and came out and played relatively clean. Overall, just pleased with the operation.”
Stoops was pleased with his team’s offensive effort in the first game under new offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan.
“I felt like offensively, I really liked the way we were getting balance there in the second quarter as we were getting more comfortable,” Stoops said. “I liked seeing the run game start hitting and we made some really tough catches as well. Brock did a super job at just managing the game. I thought he did an excellent job of making good decisions.”
Yes, there are things to be cleaned up before next week’s Southeastern Conference opener against South Carolina. But on this weather-shortened evening at Kroger Field, the Cats did what they needed to do – come home with a win.
