Kentucky’s first half was magical as they stormed out to a 17-7 lead on the #6 ranked South Carolina Gamecocks in front of 49,810 at Commonwealth Stadium.
Jalen Whitlow, who replaced an injured Maxwell Smith early on, was the offensive leader as the Wildcats smelled upset to foil Steve Spurrier’s undefeated season.
Then reality set in at the end of the first half when Kentucky’s Jalen Whitlow fumbled away an opportunity to send the Gamecocks into the locker room down 17 points. The Wildcats also would have gotten the ball to start the 2nd half with all the momentum to shock the world.
Time ran out on the Kentucky offense after the fumble and the Wildcats led at halftime 17-7.
That is when the magic turned into a mirage.
The South Carolina Gamecocks came out and ran the football down Kentucky’s throat on offense and ran over Kentucky’s Jalen Whitlow for 7 sacks and Steve Spurrier’s team started playing like a team that was contending for a national championship.
Marcus Lattimore only ran 5 times in the first half, but carried the ball 18 times in the 2nd for a game total of 120 yards and 2 touchdowns.
USC quarterback Conner Shaw was equally as deadly as he threw for 148 yards and 2 touchdowns on 15 completions and 18 attempts. Shaw also ran 19 times for 96 yards which kept the Kentucky defense guessing all night long.
Jalen Whitlow finished 12-23 for 114 yards and 2 interceptions and rushed 16 times for 53 yards and a touchdown.
Raymond Sanders scored the other touchdown rushing for 63 yards on 14 attempts.
It looked like it was going to be a big night at Commonwealth for those that showed up, but talent and the ability to run the football was just too much for Joker Phillips and the Kentucky Wildcats.
Kentucky drops to 1-4 on the season and South Carolina is 5-0.
KENTUCKY POSTGAME NOTES
No. 6 South Carolina at Kentucky
Commonwealth Stadium, Sept. 29, 2012
FINAL SCORE: No. 6 South Carolina 38, Kentucky 17
Team Records and Series Notes
With the loss, Kentucky drops to 1-4 overall, 0-2 in the Southeastern Conference. South Carolina improves to 5-0, 2-0 in the SEC.
South Carolina now leads the series 16-7-1, including 9-4 in Lexington.
Kentucky returns to action on Saturday, Oct. 6, at home vs. Mississippi State. Game time is 12:21 p.m. at Commonwealth Stadium and the game will be televised on the SEC Network.
Team Notes
UK now owns a 135-113-4 overall record at Commonwealth Stadium.
UK blocked a punt for the first time since Danny Trevathan blocked a punt vs. Georgia on Nov. 8, 2008.
UK owns a 39-185-5 record all-time against teams ranked in the Associated Press Top 20/25 Poll.
The UK defense held South Carolina to 26 total rushing yards on 19 attempts in the first half and limited the Gamecocks to 108 total yards in the first period.
The Wildcats owned a 17-7 lead at halftime. The Gamecocks entered the game having outscored its opponents 73-19 in the first half.
UK held South Carolina – who entered the game averaging 424.2 yards of offense per game – to 348 yards of total offense, the second-lowest offensive output for the Gamecocks this year, behind a 272-yard offensive game in a USC win at Vanderbilt during the opening weekend of action.
Individual Notes
Freshman QB Jalen Whitlow played his first extensive action of the year, replacing the injured Maxwell Smith in the first quarter.
Whitlow completed 12-of-23 passes for 114 yards, also rushing 16 times for one touchdown.
His eight-yard rushing touchdown in the second quarter was his first career touchdown.
Junior TB Raymond Sanders notched his second rushing touchdown of the year and the fifth of his career.
Sanders finished with 14 carries for 59 yards and one touchdown.
Senior WR La’Rod King caught two passes for 17 yards.
King now has 1,462 receiving yards in his career, staying at 10th place on the UK all-time receiving yards list.
Junior Donte Rumph notched his second sack of the year and the third of his career, finishing with six tackles.
Linebacker Alvin “Bud” Dupree has made at least one big play (QB sack, tackle for loss, fumble caused, fumble recovery or pass breakup) in nine consecutive games.
Dupree finished with nine tackles, including 1.5 sacks. It marked his first career multi-sack game.
Junior Tristan Johnson recorded his first career sack, finishing with six tackles.
Freshman WR A.J. Legree charted his first career multiple-catch game, with two receptions for 25 yards, including a 20-yard grab in the first half.
Sophomore fullback Darrell “D.J.” Warren rushed for the first time of the year, a two-yard run.
Freshman DB Daron Blaylock blocked a punt in the second quarter, UK’s first blocked punt since 2008 when Danny Trevathan blocked one against Georgia.
Blaylock also recorded his second career pass break-up and his first since the win over Kent State.
Senior Collins Ukwu notched half a sack in a four-tackle effort. He now has three sacks on the year.
Senior Taylor Wyndham recovered his first fumble of the year and the second of his career in the second quarter. Wyndham’s last fumble recovery came as a freshman in 2009.
Sophomore Miles Simpson set a new career-high with 12 tackles, eclipsing his previous career high of seven tackles vs. Kent State.
Linebacker Avery Williamson finished with 10 tackles, his third double-digit tackle effort of the year.
Senior Martavius Neloms recorded nine tackles, his second-most tackles in a game on the year.
Senior PK Craig McIntosh made his third field goal of the year, a 22-yard attempt to open the scoring in the first quarter.
McIntosh is 3-for-7 on the year and is 26-for-36 in his four-year career.
