Kentucky-Tennessee Football Postgame Notes
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KENTUCKY FOOTBALL POSTGAME NOTES
KENTUCKY at #7/7 TENNESSEE
NEYLAND STADIUM at SHIELDS-WATKINS FIELD
NOV. 2, 2024
FINAL SCORE: #7/7 Tennessee 28, Kentucky 18
Team Records and Series Information
- Kentucky is now 3-6 on the season, including 1-6 in the Southeastern Conference.
- Tennessee is now 7-1 overall, including 4-1 in the league.
- Tennessee leads the series, 85-26-9, including 45-11-6 in Knoxville.
Next Game
- Kentucky has an open date before playing host to Murray State on Nov. 16. Game time is 1:30 p.m. and it will be televised on ESPN+.
Team Notes
- Offensive Notes:
- Thanks to Josh Kattus’ 27-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter, it marked the first touchdown Tennessee has given up in the first quarter all season.
- Kentucky’s two-point conversion by Ja’Mori Maclin was Kentucky’s first since a Stephen Johnson conversion pass to Benny Snell Jr. in 2017.
- The Wildcats had nine receivers in the game, the most since the Cats used 11 receivers against South Carolina on Oct. 8, 2022.
- Defensive Notes:
- Kentucky has earned at least one turnover in each of its nine games this season, totaling 10 takeaways in 2024.
Player Notes
- QB Brock Vandagriff completed 10-of-17 for 123 yards and one touchdown. He also had 37 non-sack rushing yards.
- QB Gavin Wimsatt completed 4-of-10 for 69 yards, including his first touchdown pass as a Wildcat and the 15th of his career. He added 20 rushing yards.
- Despite not playing in the second half, WR Barion Brown led the team with three receptions for 29 yards.
- Brown has recorded a catch in 34 of his 35 career games.
- For his career, he has 119 receptions – 14th in program history – for 1,474 yards – 13th in program history
- WR Dane Key had two catches for a team-best 43 yards.
- He has made 13 catches this season of 20 yards or more.
- For his career he has 120 receptions – 13th in program history – for 1,785 yards – fifth in program history
- WR Ja’Mori Maclin had a 32-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter, his first touchdown as a Wildcat.
- Maclin also caught a two-point conversion pass following the TD.
- TE Josh Kattus had his first touchdown of the season on a 27-yard play in the first quarter.
- WR Hardley Gilmore IV had the longest reception of his young career with a 25-yard catch on UK’s second drive of the game that would eventually lead to a touchdown. Up to that point, he had just one other reception in his career, both more than 20 yards.
- RB Jamarion Wilcox had the first 100-yard-plus rushing game of his career, with a career-best 17 carries for a career-best 102 yards. He became the first freshman to register a 100+ game since Chris Rodriguez Jr. as a redshirt freshman in 2019.
- Wilcox had the longest run of Kentucky’s season with a 50-yard dash on the first snap of the game, which also was a career high for the redshirt freshman.
- Prior to this game, he had the previous long run of the season, too, with a 25-yard rush at Florida.
- He became the first UK freshman to rush for 100 yards in Knoxville.
- Wilcox had the longest run of Kentucky’s season with a 50-yard dash on the first snap of the game, which also was a career high for the redshirt freshman.
- LB Jamon Dumas-Johnson led the team with a career-high 14 tackles, a sack (-4 yards) and he recovered his own forced fumble at the UK-22 in the final minute of the first quarter.
- LB Alex Afari Jr. also had a career-high 10 tackles, including a tackle for loss (-1 yard).
- DL Tre’vonn Rybka had a sack (-4 yards), which marked the fourth sack of his career and the second sack of the season.
- The sack held Tennessee to a field goal attempt on its first drive.
- K Alex Raynor extended his streak to 16 straight field goals – a school record and personal best streak that began last season against Tennessee at Kroger Field on Oct. 28, 2023 – with one connection in tonight’s game from 32 yards.
- He also went 1-of-1 on extra point attempts, improving to 16-of-17 this season.
- P Aidan Laros had a season-long, 61-yard punt in the third quarter.
First Collegiate Starts
Freshman DB Terhyon Nichols, sophomore TE Khamari Anderson, sophomore LB Noah Matthews
Game Captains
DL Deone Walker, C Eli Cox, QB Brock Vandagriff, DB Zion Childress