KENTUCKY FOOTBALL POSTGAME NOTES

KENTUCKY at #7/7 TENNESSEE

NEYLAND STADIUM at SHIELDS-WATKINS FIELD

NOV. 2, 2024

FINAL SCORE: #7/7 Tennessee 28, Kentucky 18

Team Records and Series Information

• Kentucky is now 3-6 on the season, including 1-6 in the Southeastern Conference.
  • Tennessee is now 7-1 overall, including 4-1 in the league.
• Tennessee leads the series, 85-26-9, including 45-11-6 in Knoxville.

Next Game

• Kentucky has an open date before playing host to Murray State on Nov. 16.  Game time is 1:30 p.m. and it will be televised on ESPN+.

Team Notes

• Offensive Notes:
  • Thanks to Josh Kattus’ 27-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter, it marked the first touchdown Tennessee has given up in the first quarter all season.
  • Kentucky’s two-point conversion by Ja’Mori Maclin was Kentucky’s first since a Stephen Johnson conversion pass to Benny Snell Jr. in 2017.
  • The Wildcats had nine receivers in the game, the most since the Cats used 11 receivers against South Carolina on Oct. 8, 2022.
• Defensive Notes:
  • Kentucky has earned at least one turnover in each of its nine games this season, totaling 10 takeaways in 2024.

Player Notes

• QB Brock Vandagriff completed 10-of-17 for 123 yards and one touchdown. He also had 37 non-sack rushing yards.
• QB Gavin Wimsatt completed 4-of-10 for 69 yards, including his first touchdown pass as  a Wildcat and the 15th of his career. He added 20 rushing yards.
• Despite not playing in the second half, WR Barion Brown led the team with three receptions for 29 yards.
  • Brown has recorded a catch in 34 of his 35 career games.
  • For his career, he has 119 receptions – 14th in program history – for 1,474 yards – 13th in program history
• WR Dane Key had two catches for a team-best 43 yards.
  • He has made 13 catches this season of 20 yards or more.
  • For his career he has 120 receptions – 13th in program history – for 1,785 yards – fifth in program history
• WR Ja’Mori Maclin had a 32-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter, his first touchdown as a Wildcat.
  • Maclin also caught a two-point conversion pass following the TD.
• TE Josh Kattus had his first touchdown of the season on a 27-yard play in the first quarter.
• WR Hardley Gilmore IV had the longest reception of his young career with a 25-yard catch on UK’s second drive of the game that would eventually lead to a touchdown. Up to that point, he had just one other reception in his career, both more than 20 yards.
• RB Jamarion Wilcox had the first 100-yard-plus rushing game of his career, with a career-best 17 carries for a career-best 102 yards. He became the first freshman to register a 100+ game since Chris Rodriguez Jr. as a redshirt freshman in 2019.
  • Wilcox had the longest run of Kentucky’s season with a 50-yard dash on the first snap of the game, which also was a career high for the redshirt freshman.
    • Prior to this game, he had the previous long run of the season, too, with a 25-yard rush at Florida.
  • He became the first UK freshman to rush for 100 yards in Knoxville.
• LB Jamon Dumas-Johnson led the team with a career-high 14 tackles, a sack (-4 yards) and he recovered his own forced fumble at the UK-22 in the final minute of the first quarter.
• LB Alex Afari Jr. also had a career-high 10 tackles, including a tackle for loss (-1 yard).
• DL Tre’vonn Rybka had a sack (-4 yards), which marked the fourth sack of his career and the second sack of the season.
  • The sack held Tennessee to a field goal attempt on its first drive.
• K Alex Raynor extended his streak to 16 straight field goals – a school record and personal best streak that began last season against Tennessee at Kroger Field on Oct. 28, 2023 – with one connection in tonight’s game from 32 yards.
  • He also went 1-of-1 on extra point attempts, improving to 16-of-17 this season.
• P Aidan Laros had a season-long, 61-yard punt in the third quarter.

First Collegiate Starts

Freshman DB Terhyon Nichols, sophomore TE Khamari Anderson, sophomore LB Noah Matthews

Game Captains

DL Deone Walker, C Eli Cox, QB Brock Vandagriff, DB Zion Childress