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Good Sunday morning BBN, these are your Wildcat Quickies! The Kentucky football team may have saved itself from falling into a hopeless season.. for now. The win against South Carolina last night gives them a 2-2 record, and there are still winnable games left on the schedule. If nothing else, it looks as if the team won’t go 2-10, and that’s always good.
This also buys Mark Stoops some time. It felt as though he realized he was under immense pressure last night, and he and his team delivered. The defense was stout under his direction, and the adjustments made at half time actually worked (shocking, right?) to help the Cats overcome a first half deficit and beat South Carolina for the third year in a row.
Last night showed something that we haven’t seen from Kentucky in the Stoops era: fight. Kentucky players seemed fed up. They were fed up with rumors of their coach being on the hot seat, and they were fed up of being trashed by the media (mainly on the defensive side of the ball). They showed that they were capable of getting up for a game. They didn’t roll over and they didn’t falter in the second half. We saw 60 minutes of tough football from the Cats last night, and it was much-needed. It was much-needed for the players, the coaches and the fans.
Tweet of the day
"Kentucky May Have The Worst Defense In The History Of Football"
— Matt Elam™6⃣9⃣ (@FballIsLife69) September 25, 2016
Don’t jump the gun here; this defense hasn’t made a miraculous turnaround just yet, and it’s still bad. However, if they play the way they did last night for the rest of the year, they certainly won’t be in the conversation for worst ever.
Your quickies
South Carolina head coach WIll Muschamp’s postgame comments - SB Nation
Muschamp was frustrated with a lack of execution and noted that he has a young group.
Mark Stoops’ postgame comments - Courier-Journal
Stoops was happy with all three aspects of the team, and thought it was a great team victory.
Lee Corso buries the Cats on College Gameday - 247 Sports
Sure, Lee, the defense might suck, but they still won. And we’ll take that for now.
Outside linebacker Denzil Ware reacts to Corso’s comments - Courier-Journal
Ware is proud of this defensive unit.
Gamecocks succumbed to Kentucky’s physicality in second half - Gamecock Central
Snell ran defenders over and the defense was stout. South Carolina simply couldn’t match the Cats in physicality.
Statues of Kentucky football legends already a hit on campus - Herald-Leader
With the history it represents, and what it means to Kentucky, it doesn’t surprise me that people love this statue.
Johnson gets battered, delivers win - USA Today
Stephen Johnson took all kinds of hits when he may not have needed to on Saturday, but it doesn’t matter because he got the win.
Other sports news
Auburn upsets No. 17 LSU after roller-coaster finish - USA Today
LSU pulled off a miraculous game-winning touchdown as time expired, but then officials determined they didn’t get the snap off in time, and Auburn pulled off the upset.
Texas A&M gets win over Arkansas - USA Today
A&M may be a legitimate threat in the SEC. They looked good in a 21-point win over No. 17 Arkansas.
No. 7 Stanford avoids the upset against UCLA - Fox Sports
The Cardinal had to put up a go-ahead touchdown with 30 seconds to go. They then recovered a fumble and took it to the house for good measure as time expired.
Duke stuns Notre Dame on late field goal - USA Today
Kicker AJ Reed was the hero Saturday, putting up the final 3 points in a 38-35 upset victory over Notre Dame.
Why LSU needs to fire Les Miles now - Fox Sports
Miles’ seat is hotter than it’s ever been after the latest loss. After LSU basically fired him and then said never mind last season, it’s clear that it probably wouldn’t be a hard decision for them to let him go now.
Other news
Snapchat is releasing a hardware product called Spectacles - The Verge
Here’s how they’ll work.