Kentucky left College Station with a huge win over No. 9 Texas A&M, and the Wildcats also got a reassuring update on one of their defensive leaders.
Senior safety Ty Bryant was shaken up late in the first half after tackling Texas A&M’s Rueben Owens II on the Aggies’ final possession before halftime. He headed straight to the locker room, then came back to the sideline after the break.
Bryant didn’t return to the field until the fourth quarter, and he took another shot late on Texas A&M’s final drive while Kentucky was trying to close things out. ESPN’s cameras later showed him jogging to the sideline with his arm held tight.
After the game, Will Stein told Tom Leach that Bryant should be fine, even if the next few days bring some soreness.
“Ty’s good. You know, he got banged up a little bit on his shoulder, but he ended up going back in the game.
He got hit again on it, so I’m sure he’ll be sore this next week. But I know he’s the heartbeat of our defense, one of the heartbeats of our team.
So proud of him and the way he played.”
Bryant was healthy enough to join in the celebration with family and friends at Kyle Field once the upset was in the books. He finished with 10 tackles, including four solo stops, giving him 25 tackles on the season.
His family was there as usual, including his father, Cisco, who played for Jerry Claiborne with Matt Stein, Will’s father. Bryant also made a decision this offseason that has worked out well so far. He could have entered the portal after Mark Stoops was fired, but the Lexington native stayed put and gave Stein a chance.
“I think I’d just be doing myself a disservice by just hitting the door if I didn’t see who we hired,” Bryant told reporters this summer. “Then we hired Coach Stein, and it’s like, okay, it’s a guy who has been to the College Football Playoffs, where I want to go ultimately. Coach Jay Bateman, he’s been to the College Football Playoffs, where I want to go.
“So you’ve got two guys who are going to be working with me directly. It’s like, you know, in my mind, I feel kind of dumb to leave.
So I trust those guys, and I trust what they were saying about this program and the way it’s headed. And I can tell by what they said and how they run things that it’s definitely heading in that direction.”
Kentucky is back home Saturday against South Alabama, and Bryant will almost certainly insist he’s ready. If he needs a little extra time before the trip to South Carolina, though, nobody in Lexington will argue with that.
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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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Kentucky heads into Saturdays trip to Kyle Field with a chance to chip away at one of the stranger streaks in its football history. The Wildcats take on Texas A&M in College Station at 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN, with streaming options on ESPN+ and Fubo, and the matchup brings a long-running challenge back into view for a program still looking for a breakthrough in the series.
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 🡒]