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Postgame Notes


Postgame Quotes

STEVE BAILEY
AP Sports Writer

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) – Kentucky relied on its high-powered offense to rally from a 20-7 first-half deficit against rival Indiana.

Kentucky’s Dewayne Robertson knocks the ball out of the hands of Indiana quarterback Antwaan Randle El late in the fourth quarter. The fumble was recovered by Kentucky’s Matt Layow who returned it for the game-winning touchdown. (AP Photo/Rob Carr)

It was a stingy defense, however, that earned the Wildcats their sixth straight victory over the Hoosiers.

Senior Matt Layow scooped up a fumble and returned it 21 yards for the game-winning score with less than two minutes remaining as Kentucky beat Indiana 41-34 Saturday night in front of more than 70,000 screaming fans at Commonwealth Stadium.

“This is a huge win for us,” said strong safety David Johnson, the Wildcats’ leading tackler with a career-high 13 stops. “It is big for us not to lose to a team like this.

“That fumble was the biggest play of the game. It’s good for our defense to know that we can step up, make plays and change the game.”

The game was the shootout that everyone associated with the annual battle has come to expect during the past three seasons.

Kentucky (2-1) took its first lead, 31-26, on freshman Chad Scott’s second touchdown run of the game on the final play of the third quarter.

Quarterback Antwaan Randle El bounced back to lead Indiana (0-2) on a five-play, 75-yard drive. He rushed three times for 54 yards and hit tight end Bobby Brandt with a 20-yard TD pass to put the Hoosiers back on top 34-31 with 12:36 to play.

Seth Hanson’s 24-yard field goal tied the game with 8:03 remaining and set up the dramatic finish.

Freshman tackle Dewayne Robertson hit Randle El from behind as he scrambled around the pocket, knocking the ball from his hands for the second time in the game. Layow picked up the ball in stride and scampered into the end zone untouched with 1:57 remaining for his second career touchdown.

Kentucky’s Chad Scott celebrates after scoring a touchdown in the third quarter. (AP Photo/Rob Carr)

“I wouldn’t have even seen the fumble play if it weren’t for the DiamondVision,” Kentucky coach Hal Mumme said of the giant television screens at each end of the stadium. “Our guys made a great play on that one.”

Randle El led Indiana back down the field to the Kentucky 20 with less than a minute to play, but misfired on three straight passes to end the threat.

Randle El rushed 25 times for 83 yards and two touchdowns and completed 11 of 26 passes for 143 yards and two more scores for the Hoosiers (0-2), who fell to North Carolina State 41-38 in their season opener a week earlier.

“I have never been around a group of guys that can play as hard as our guys play and make as many plays as we make and still come up short,” Indiana coach Cam Cameron said. “I feel for these guys in the locker room.

“We have kids that really believe in what we are doing. We still make too many mistakes. But if we are sitting there with a group that won’t give up, then we have great character.”

Jared Lorenzen hit 33 of 48 passes for 339 yards and two touchdowns, and Scott rushed 15 times for 63 yards and a pair of 4-yard scores in his first career start for the Wildcats (2-1).

Lorenzen, a redshirt freshman who played most of the game with a bruised shoulder and a migraine headache, has thrown for more than 300 yards in each of his first three starts.

“We’ve come back against IU before,” Lorenzen said. “The last time they came here, we were down three touchdowns, and Coach (Mumme) knew that.

“You’ve got to just stay focused, even when you’re behind, and let the system work for you. You have to stay with your reads, go with the flow and act like the score is still 0-0.”

Indiana scored on five straight first-half possessions- Randle El ran for two TDs and passed for another and Andy Payne kicked two field goals – to go up 26-14 with 1:32 to play.

Following a Randle El fumble at midfield – caused and recovered by Robertson – with 51 seconds remaining, Lorenzen floated a perfect pass to tight end Derek Smith in the right corner of the end zone to cut the margin to 26-21 at halftime.

“We were a little out of sync at the beginning of the game, and we had a rough start,” Mumme said. “I thought we recovered well in the second quarter and played a great second half.

“Indiana used a different game plan than we expected, and it just took us a little time to adjust.”