Kentucky bounced back in a big way yesterday by defeating Miami 41-7. Kentucky had a chance to show the fans the true air-raid offense by totaling 675 yards of offense.
Mark Stoops earned his first win a collegiate head coach. Congratulations coach, I hope this is the first of many to come at Kentucky.
*************************************Positives*******************************************************
Kentucky’s 675 yards offensively yesterday is the third most in school history, and the highest since 1998. Kentucky threw for 413 yards and added 262 yards on the ground. Kentucky gained 27 first downs on 74 plays.
Max Smith
After being named the starting quarterback on Monday, Max had one of his best games as a Wildcat. Smith was 15-23 passing for 310 yards and 3 touchdowns. Very impressive game for the sophomore quarterback.
Jalen Whitlow
Whitlow had another solid performance yesterday showing why it is so hard to keep him off the field. Whitlow threw for 103 yards on 10-12 passing, and added 48 rushing yards and one touchdown on just 7 carries.
Ryan Timmons
Freshman wide receiver Ryan Timmons had the best game of his young Kentucky career, I know this is only the second game of the season, but Timmons is going to be a real play maker for Kentucky over the next four years. Timmons finished the game with 89 total yards, 55 yards receiving on 5 catches and carried the ball 4 times for 37 yards including a 21 yard run.
Javess Blue
Junior wide receiver Javess Blue had the best day of all the wide receivers yesterday catching the ball six times for 114 yards and a touchdown. Blue was also on the receiving end of an 88 yard touchdown strike in the first quarter. Javess had 21 yards rushing on one carry and returned 5 punts for 22 yards.
Jojo Kemp
Freshman running back Jojo Kemp led the Kentucky ground game yesterday by rushing for 78 yards on 12 carries.
Defense
Kentucky’s defense looked like an entirely different team than the one we saw against Western Kentucky. I know we played a very bad Miami team, but the defense put together a solid performance led by Za’Darius Smith Za’Darius finished the game with six tackles and three sacks. Avery Williamson also added six tackles. TraVaughn Paschal had seven tackles, which is a career high. Kentucky only allowed Miami to gain 122 yards of offense.
*********************************************Negatives***********************************************
Penalties
Once again this week Kentucky had way to many penalties. The Wildcats were penalized 11 times for 117 yards. This is one thing Kentucky will have to clean up this week in order to have a chance against Louisville this Saturday. The unsportsmanlike penalty called on Za’Darius Smith was totally uncalled for. If you get a sack its okay to be excited, but their is no need to get carried away resulting in a 15 yard penalty.
Special Teams
Special teams play really needs to improve. You should never try to field a punt inside the 10 yard line. Daryl Collins made that mistake and it was a costly one. He muffed the ball and Miami was able to recover and score as a result. The only score they had all day.
Overall this was a very good win for Kentucky. Coach Stoops said in his post game press conference that he was very happy with the win, but they are still things that they need to improve on and will work hard this week to make some corrections that need to be made.
Highlights of Kentucky’s win over Miami.
