A week ago, Kentucky football fans stayed up well into the night hoping that Mother Nature would cooperate long enough to allow their team to start and finish its season-opening contest.
Those fans would have preferred the storms over what happened under the bright sunshine at Kroger Field Saturday.
South Carolina scored three second-half touchdowns in seven minutes of game time and took advantage of an all-around dreadful performance by Kentucky’s offense en route to a 31-6 blowout victory over the Wildcats in the SEC opener for both schools.
As fans were seen leaving the stadium before the end of the third quarter, Kentucky (1-1) trailed by three scores and had managed barely 100 total yards.
Early on, things started in South Carolina’s favor when quarterback LaNorris Sellers took advantage of busted coverage and connected with Mazeo Bennett for a 24-yard touchdown and a Gamecocks 7-0 lead with 7:39 to play in the first quarter.
By early in the second quarter, Mark Stoops rolled the dice and went for it on a 4th-and-1 play from the Kentucky 31. But South Carolina’s defense stuffed quarterback Brock Vandagriff for no gain and the Gamecocks took over from there, eventually adding a 29-yard Alex Herrera field goal for a 10-0 lead with 8:06 to play in the half.
Kentucky didn’t get on the board until after the two-minute timeout when Alex Raynor booted a 32-yard field goal that cut the deficit to 10-3. After Ty Bryant made his first career interception, the Wildcats settled for another field goal from Raynor — from 39 yards out — to make it 10-6 heading into halftime,
At intermission, Kentucky had 115 total yards and seven first downs. Vandagriff was just 3 of 6 passing for 30 yards with the bulk of the offense coming on Demie Sumo-Karngbaye’s 73 rushing yards.
Things only got worse in the second half.
Kentucky was its own biggest enemy at times, such as when South Carolina (1-0) lined up to go for it on a 4th-and-1 play from the Wildcats’ 49. The Gamecocks managed to draw Kentucky offsides for a first down. Sellers soon converted on 3rd and 14 for a big completion to a wide-open Bennett for 32 yards and a first down.
One play later, Sellers faked a pitch to Raheim “Rocket” Sanders and hit a wide-open Joshua Simon for a 16-yard touchdown and a 17-6 lead after the extra point with 6:49 left in the third quarter.
Later in the third, when Sanders made a cut to the outside for a 21-yard run that set up 1st-and-goal from the 1-yard line, the game was all but out of reach. Sanders would (eventually) cap off the drive with a 6-yard touchdown run that made it 24-6 after the extra point with 28 seconds left.
On Kentucky’s first play of the fourth quarter, Vandagriff made a terrible throw into coverage that was intercepted by Nick Emmanwori and returned 24 yards for a pick six to give South Carolina its final score.
Vandagriff didn’t complete a pass in the second half, finishing 3 of 10 on the day before being pulled for backup Gavin Wimsatt. Wimsatt fared no better, completing 3 of 7 passes for 14 yards and an interception.
Kentucky finished the day with just 183 total yards — only 44 through the air. The Wildcats were penalized 11 times for 63 yards.
It’s now the third straight year that Kentucky has lost to South Carolina. Saturday also marked the first time the Wildcats had been held without a touchdown in a game since their 21-0 loss to Iowa in the 2022 Music City Bowl.
Things don’t get any easier for the Wildcats from here. No. 1 Georgia will visit Kroger Field for a 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff in prime time next Saturday. The game can be seen on ABC.