KENTUCKY POSTGAME NOTES
Eastern Michigan at Kentucky
Kroger Field, Lexington, Ky.
Sept. 7, 2019
 
FINAL SCORE: Kentucky 38, Eastern Michigan 17
 
Team Records and Series Information

• Kentucky is 2-0.  Eastern Michigan is 1-1.
• This was the second meeting between the teams, with UK winning the first matchup (24-20) in 2017.
• Kentucky is 22-3 against teams from the current alignment of the Mid-American Conference, including 12 wins in a row.
• Next for Kentucky: the Wildcats host Florida on Saturday, Sept. 14, at 7 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPN.

 
Team Notes

• This marked Kentucky’s seventh consecutive non-conference win.
• Kentucky is off to a 2-0 start for the third straight season and fifth time in the last six years.
• UK has won each game this season by at least 14 points, first time that has happened since the first two games of 2014.
• Kentucky has won 12 of its last 15 games, tied for the second-best record in the Southeastern Conference in the last 15 games.
  • It’s UK’s best record in a 15-game span since Dec. 31, 1976 through Sept. 30, 1978, when the Wildcats were 12-2-1 during that time.
• UK scored 38 points in each of the first two games, first time that has happened since 2007.
• Kentucky had touchdown drives of 90 and 94 yards.  UK also had two 90+ touchdown drives last week, giving the Wildcats four on the season. 
  • UK has already matched the team total of four 90+ yard scoring drives from last season.
• UK made 9 of 14 third-down conversions, 64.3 percent, the team’s best since last season’s win at Florida (9 of 13). 
• UK has made 121 consecutive extra points, the ninth-longest active streak in the nation. 
• UK has allowed 24 points or less in 15 of its last 16 games. That is the best such stretch since October 14, 1978 to Sept. 6, 1980. UK allowed 24 points or less in 18 of 19 games in that stretch.
• UK had three players complete at least one pass vs. an FBS opponent for the first time since 2012 vs. Georgia. 
• UK had at least one interception in each of the first two games, the first time that has happened since the 2016 season.
• This is the first time UK has had a linebacker with an interception in consecutive games since 2014 vs. South Carolina (Bud Dupree) and Louisiana-Monroe (Josh Forrest). 

 
Player Notes

• UK’s game captains — LB Josh Paschal, QB Terry Wilson, LB Kash Daniel and athlete Lynn Bowden Jr.

  • The honorary captain was former linebacker Chris Chenault (1985-88), UK’s No. 2 all-time leading tackler (482).
• Junior quarterback Terry Wilson completed 14 of 26 passes for 114 yards. He also rushed eight times for 43 yards and a touchdown.  He left the game late in the third quarter with a left knee injury.
  • Wilson is 12-3 as a UK starter, best record for any UK QB in his first 15 starts with starting lineups available since 1993.
• QB Sawyer Smith, a transfer from Troy, saw his first action at Kentucky.  His first pass was a 54-yard touchdown throw to WR Ahmad Wagner.  For the game, Smith 5 of 9 passes for 76 yards and two touchdowns.
• Wagner had his best game as a Wildcat, catching three passes for 71 yards, including the 54-yarder which was his first collegiate touchdown. He also drew three pass interference penalties during the game – one negated by an offsetting UK penalty and the other on his touchdown catch.
• Junior athlete Lynn Bowden Jr. caught seven passes for 54 yards and one touchdown.
  • Now has 1,086 career receiving yards, moving past Derek Homer for 27^th place on the UK career receiving yardage list.
  • Threw a 32-yard completion to Terry Wilson that set up Kavosiey Smoke’s first-quarter touchdown run.  Bowden has completed 4 of 6 passes for 124 yards during his career.
  • He is the first UK player with at least six receptions in each of the first two games since Randall Cobb in 2009. 
• Redshirt freshman RB Kavosiey Smoke had career highs with 11 carries for 92 yards.  He also had a 32-yard touchdown run.
  • With game stats available since 1946, Smoke is the first UK player to have scoring runs of at least 32 yards in each of the first two games of the season.  He also had a 40-yarder last week vs. Toledo. 
• Junior RB Asim Rose had a career-high 17 carries for 82 yards, including an eight-yard touchdown run.
• Rose and Smoke each have a rushing touchdown in the first two games of the season, first UK teammates to tally rushing TDs in the first two games since Tony Dixon and Alfonso Smith in 2007.
• Senior LB Kash Daniel picked off his first career interception. He added five tackles.
• Senior S Jordan Griffin had his first interception of the season, the second of his career. 
  • He also notched the first quarterback sack of his career and had a career-high two pass breakups.
• Sophomore LB Josh Paschal had five tackles, including a career-high two tackles for loss.

Sophomore WR Allen Dailey Jr. made his first collegiate start.