Kenny Darby’s day at Texas A&M could have gone sideways in a hurry.
The Kentucky freshman had a chance to erase an early mistake with one clean catch in the first quarter, and instead the ball slipped away at the worst possible moment. Kenny Minchey had found him in stride with open grass ahead and the end zone close by, but the pass hit Darby and fell to the turf.
Kentucky fans had every reason to cringe, and the drive only got worse from there. The Wildcats pushed all the way to the 13-yard line before a penalty and two sacks forced them into a field goal try, and even that kick hooked away.
What should have been points turned into nothing.
Still, the Wildcats never let the drop linger.
Minchey made it clear he wasn’t worried, saying, “I told him, ‘The ball is coming right back to you,’ and it did.”
That confidence carried over to the sideline, where Will Stein met Darby with a simple message: “You’re good.”
“One play focus,” said Stein. “I knew he would get an opportunity late in the game.
Obviously, that stinks for our squad. But next play.
That guy’s an unbelievable football player. He’s going to be really good here for a long time.
He’s uber competitive, and I knew he’d make another play for us.”
He did exactly that in the third quarter. Minchey went back to Darby in nearly the same area of the field, and this time the freshman finished the job. Darby secured the catch, shook off a defender, and raced into the end zone to put Kentucky ahead.
By the end of the game, Darby had two catches for 64 yards and a touchdown.
The response from his teammates was loud and immediate. CJ Baxter put it plainly: “Man, he’s not a freshman.
He’s definitely not a freshman,” running back CJ Baxter said after the game. “The juice that he brings to the offense, the juice he brings at practice, in the games, on the sideline when he’s in the huddle.
Y’all gotta hear him in the huddle, by the way, he’s hilarious. He’s amazing.
He’s definitely - what he put on display, that’s the kind of player he is, for sure. Coach Sloan, I’m glad he got him.”
Joe Sloan’s early recruiting work brought Darby to Kentucky in the first place, as he flipped the Top-200 talent from LSU on the final day of the Early Signing Period. Through three games, Darby has already posted 10 catches for 183 yards and two touchdowns.
He wasn’t spotless at Texas A&M, but the game gave him something valuable to carry forward.
“Obviously, we would have liked the other outcome, but it was good for something like that to happen, and then for him to be able to score later on,” said Minchey.
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The momentum kept swinging Kentuckys way in the third quarter, when CJ Baxter helped stretch the lead and put Texas A&M on its heels. With the Wildcats suddenly in front 28-7, the question became whether Kentucky could turn that fast start into the kind of statement win that changes how the rest of the league sees it. [Read more 🡒]
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The last Kentucky win over Texas A&M came in 1952, a reminder of just how long this road has been. The teams have not played often, but their most recent meeting in 2018 ended with a Texas A&M overtime victory, leaving Kentucky with another reminder of how hard this matchup has been to crack. [Read more 🡒]