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The Kentucky Wildcats are 3-0 for the first time since 2010.
The Wildcats netted their third win of the season Saturday night with their 23-13 win over the South Carolina Gamecocks. With that win, UK also starts off SEC play with a clean, 1-0 record while SC drops to 1-1.
Saturday’s win marked the fourth straight time that the ‘Cats took down the Gamecocks. Kentucky also chalked up only their second victory in Columbia in their last nine tries. They had previously been 0-for-7 prior to this two-game win streak in the ongoing SEC East rivalry.
WHAT WE LEARNED
Kentucky is still looking for a run game breakthrough
While Benny Snell picked up over 100 yards in the victory, he did so on 32 carries. A 3.2 YPC average is a bit of an eyesore to say the least. The Wildcats, on the whole, mustered up just 3.9 yards per carry on the day against the SC defense. Quarterback Stephen Johnson was dynamic himself, averaging 10.6 YPC on seven rushing attempts. But on the whole, the team still is looking to break through. They could not against a pretty vulnerable Gamecock defense. So they’ll have to keep searching. Luckily, they can celebrate the win for now.
Deebo Samuel’s injury proved costly
It’s a shame that Deebo Samuel hurt himself. The Gamecocks offensive weapon had been fun and exciting to watch this season. Unfortunately, news trickled by that Samuel broke his ankle in the 3rd quarter. The Gamecock offense sputtered without Samuel on the field, where he had amounted five catches, 122 yards and a TD before exiting. Luckily, the prognosis is not as bad as originally thought, as he’ll be out for 5-6 weeks. But it’s certainly likely that Deebo’s absence from the game led to this loss for South Carolina.
Kentucky’s run defense looked great... again.
The Wildcats limited Rico Dowdle to just 23 yards on eight carries. It was much of the same for A.J. Turner and Jake Bentley, too. Turner and Bentley picked up merely 12 and 19 yards of their own. The Gamecocks, on the whole, could only muster up 54 yards with a 2.7 YPC average. UK’s run defense has been stingy and stifling this season, and they continued that trend against some high-caliber talent Saturday night. If this continues, Kentucky