The Kentucky Wildcats wouldn’t go down without a fight, and without a running into the punter penalty, the outcome could have been totally different.
Kentucky had just stopped Georgia on 3rd down with the score 22-17, causing the Bulldogs to punt, but the officials called a questionable running into the kicker to give the Bulldogs a first down. The drive continued and Aaron Murray’s touchdown pass to Arthur Lynch from 10 yards out ultimately sealed the deal for Georgia with 7:51 left in the 4th quarter.
Kentucky dropped their 6 straight game, this time to the #12 Georgia Bulldogs by a score of 29-24.
The Wildcats running game was tough all night, racking up 206 yards on 43 rushes, with Jonathan George’s career high 87 yards setting the pace.
Raymond Sanders also had an efficient game, running for 73 yards, one of those being a 3 yard touchdown run for the final score of the game.
The Kentucky defense was stingy giving up rushing yards as Georgia ran for only 77 yards on 32 attempts.
The big story for the Bulldogs was quarterback Aaron Murray’s monster day through the air, throwing for 427 yards on 30-38 passing and 4 touchdowns.
Morgan Newton made his first positive contributions in a long time, throwing for a touchdown in the 1st quarter, which snapped a 20 game streak of Kentucky not scoring in the opening stanza. He also ran for a touchdown.
Jalen Whitlow, who had to sit out in the 2nd half due to severe migraines, finished with 86 yards passing and 37 yards rushing.
The Wildcats will travel to Missouri next week with a 12:21 start time on the SEC Network.
Here are the postgame notes:
Team Records and Series Notes
Kentucky is 1-7 overall, 0-5 in the Southeastern Conference. Georgia is 6-1 overall, 4-1 in league play.
Georgia leads the series 52-12-2.
Kentucky is 47-20 in Homecoming games since 1946.
Kentucky returns to action Saturday, Oct. 27, at Missouri. The game is at noon EDT (11 a.m. CDT in Columbia).
Team Notes
The Wildcats scored on its opening drive for the first time in 2012, driving 84 yards in 13 plays for a touchdown, taking 5:01 off the clock.
Kentucky entered the game having played the toughest schedule in the nation, according to three of the computer ratings used in the official BCS rankings.
UK faced its fifth top-25 opponent of the season, with UK’s opponents combining for a 37-7 record when not playing Kentucky in 2012.
UK rushed for 206 yards on 43 carries, a new season high, eclipsing the 185 rushing yards on 30 carries in the win over Kent State.
The Wildcats held Georgia to 77 rushing yards on 32 carries, the fewest rushing yards for a UK opponent in 2012 and the fewest rushing yards for the Bulldogs on the season.
Marked the first time UK held an opponent under 100 yards of rushing since limiting Tennessee to 61 yards in 2011.
UK’s 24-point output vs. the Bulldogs marked the second-most points scored vs. UGA in 2012.
Kentucky is fielding one of the nation’s youngest teams, playing 14 true freshmen and 26 total (true and redshirt) frosh, one of the nation’s top-five teams in each category. Highlighting the youth is the Wildcat secondary, which entered this game with one senior, two sophomores and five true freshmen on the two-deep.
Individual Notes
Freshman QB Jalen Whitlow rushed six times for 31 yards and was 9-for-13 for 86 yards in the air.
On a trick play in the second quarter, Whitlow hauled in his first career catch, a 33-yard grab from WR Demarco Robinson.
Robinson made his first career pass attempt in the second quarter, hooking up with Whitlow for a 33-yard completion.
Junior TB Jonathan George set a new career high with 87 yards on 12 rushes. George’s 87-yard rushing outing eclipses 52-yard rushing games vs. Kent State and Florida.
Junior TB Raymond Sanders rushed 18 times for 72 yards, recording his third TD run of the year and the sixth of his career.
Senior QB Morgan Newton threw his first touchdown of the season and the 15th of his career.
Newton added a two-yard touchdown rush in the second quarter, his first rushing TD of the year and the fifth of his career.
He finished with five rushes for 21 yards.
Senior Aaron Boyd hauled in his second touchdown of the year in the first quarter, a four-yard grab.
Senior DE Taylor Wyndham and junior DL Donte Rumph each finished with 1.5 sacks in the game.
The sacks give Wyndham 7.5 in his career.
Rumph has four sacks in his career and three in 2012.
Junior LB Avery Williamson led UK with 13 tackles, marking his fifth double-digit tackle effort of the year.
Freshman DB Fred Tiller charted a career-high eight tackles.
Sophomore DB Ashely Lowery recorded his first career tackle for a loss.
Sophomore DB Eric Dixon recorded his first career sack, totaling three tackles in the game.
Senior PK Craig McIntosh made his fourth field goal of the season and is now 4-for-8 in 2012.
In his career, McIntosh has made 27-of-35 field-goal attempts, including 7-of-8 from 30-39 yards.
