Literary giant Charles Dickens said it best: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Dickens used that famous opening line to start his classic novel A Tale of Two Cities, but it could just as easily apply to the Kentucky Wildcats and their game against the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles. The Cats jumped out to a 35-10 lead with less than a minute left in the first half and a Commonwealth Stadium crowd of 57,230 watched in vanish by the end of the third quarter.
Drew Barker was red hot in the first half connecting on 11 of 19 passes for 287 yards and 4 TDs. Of the five first half scoring drives for Kentucky, the longest took only 2 minutes and 4 seconds off the clock. The defense had three interceptions, with JD Harmon snatching two of them. The Wildcats were rolling, the Golden Eagles were on their heels and then USM’s Mullens connected to Isiah Jones on a 71 yard TD throw with 22 seconds left in the half to start a run of 31 straight points for Southern Mississippi.
In the third quarter, Golden Eagles QB Nick Mullens had two 1 yard TD runs and threw for another (18 yards to Julian Allen) to help push Southern Miss into the lead. Two additional field goals from USM, pushed the final margin to 44-35.
Everything that went right for the Wildcats early in the game went wrong in the second half. Drew Barker wasn’t making the throws. The O-Line wasn’t giving Barker time or giving the running backs holes to run through. Then there were the untimely penalties. The turnovers. The dropped interceptions. For a team that the Big Blue Nation knew has a small margin for error, the Cats did some of the same things we’ve seen then do time and time again.
It’s hard not to give into the “same old Cats” mentality when you see the same things on the field that you’ve seen for years and years. Of course, this is just one game. There are 11 more to go. But if the Cats bring the same level play that they did tonight, it’s going to difficult to find those 6 wins to send head coach Mark Stoops to his first bowl game.
