Kentucky looked finished early at South Carolina. Down 17-0, buried by a first-half stretch in which the Gamecocks piled up 199 yards and the Wildcats managed just 18, it had the feel of a road game slipping away fast.
Instead, Will Stein’s team flipped the whole thing.
Kentucky roared back for a 35-24 overtime win Saturday, pulling off the biggest Southeastern Conference road comeback in program history. After the Wildcats cut it to 34-33, Stein kept the ball in his offense’s hands and went for the win on a two-point conversion. Kenny Minchey found a wide-open Willie Rodriguez, and that was that.
“Kentucky football is here to stay. I mean, we have a great leader in Will Stein, and we’re ready to take on anybody that lines up against us,” Kentucky receiver Nic Anderson, who caught a 32-yard touchdown, said on the UK Radio Network after the dramatic comeback win.
Stein sounded every bit as fired up after the game. On the SEC Network, he compared the effort to Kentucky’s famous comeback identity and let the celebration spill out.
“I was a big Wildcat basketball fan. Those Comeback Cats right there (referring to UK’s 1998 national championship team).
Comeback Cats here in Colombia. I love it.
I love the fight. I love the grit.
Get back on this plane and celebrate,” Stein said on the SEC Network while his players and UK fans celebrated after Kenny Minchey’s conversion pass to a wide-open Willie Rodriguez won the game.
On the UK Radio Network with Tom Leach, Stein called it a “wild” game and pointed to the swings that shaped it.
“It was not pretty but good teams find a way to win and that’s what we did,” he said.
He also owned his late-game mistakes, saying his clock management was “bad” and cost Kentucky a shot at a potential game-winning field goal in regulation. But when overtime arrived, Stein stuck with the next-play mindset he teaches his team and made the aggressive call that finished the job.
Kentucky is now 4-1 in Stein’s first season, with wins at Texas A&M and at South Carolina already. That’s a stunning start, and it has the Wildcats in the AP Top 25 at No. 24 after last week’s rankings. A climb again this week seems likely.
Former UK player Ricky Lumpkin was all in on the postgame radio show.
“These guys will never forget this and to come back from 17 down and get punched in the mouth over and over again … I am excited. What coach Stein has done in a short amount of time is amazing,” he said on the UK Radio Network. “I am too excited to even think about it all.”
UK Radio Network analyst Jeff Piecoro matched that energy.
“That is what football is all about when you can win on the road in overtime and quiet the place,” Piecoro said. “This comeback after the first 25 minutes of this game … what a third quarter again (like UK had at Texas A&M).
Made great adjustments at halftime to get the biggest comeback in history on the road in conference play. They had barely 100 yards at halftime and finished with almost 400 (369).”
The fake punt Stein tried in the loss to Alabama didn’t change how he sees the game, and it didn’t change how he handled overtime here. He told Leach he knew before the extra period even began that Kentucky would chase the win with a two-point try if it got the chance.
“Momentum had swung back (to South Carolina). I did a really poor job of clock management (at the end of regulation),” he said.
“It was great execution by our guys (in overtime). The best way to win the game was to go for two.”
That decision made Stein the first Kentucky coach ever to win his first two SEC road games. The only other UK coach among 17 to win even one of his first two SEC road games was Fran Curci in 1973. Stein is also the first Kentucky head coach to start 4-1 in his first season since Paul “Bear” Bryant in 1946.
In Other News...
Will Stein's Late Gamble Put Kentucky Fans On Edge
Kentuckys 35-34 overtime win at South Carolina came with all the chaos youd expect from a road game that turned into the largest comeback in program history. Will Stein spent much of his postgame press conference walking through how it all unfolded, from the defensive strain that made the finish feel so precarious to the way key players helped the Wildcats dig out of a hole and keep the game alive.
Stein also owned the clock-management mistake late in regulation, a rare public slip in a night filled with high-leverage decisions. The biggest one came in overtime, when he chose to go for the win with a two-point conversion instead of extending the game, a gamble he tied to how worn down his defense had become as Kentucky dealt with injuries and a game that kept asking for one more answer. [Read more 🡒]
Kenny Minchey Just Delivered A Kentucky Road Performance Fans Rarely See
Kenny Mincheys night in Columbia started slowly, but it ended with Kentucky leaving South Carolina with a 35-34 overtime win and a quarterback performance the program has not seen often on the road. Minchey settled in as the game went on, completing 28 of 41 passes for 272 yards and three touchdowns while helping the Wildcats bounce back from early trouble and stay in the thick of the SEC race.
The bigger significance may be what Minchey just did in a road conference setting. He became the first Kentucky quarterback since 2001 to post those passing numbers in an SEC road game without throwing an interception, a rare blend of volume, efficiency and poise away from home. With the win, Kentucky moved to 4-1 overall and 2-1 in league play, and it now has a quarterback performance worth circling as the schedule gets tougher. [Read more 🡒]
Kentuckys Gutsy Win Left The Wildcats With A Worrying LSU Problem
Kentuckys overtime escape against South Carolina came with the kind of toll that can change a week in a hurry. The Wildcats survived 35-34, but the win was shadowed by a string of injuries, with running back Jason Patterson, linebacker Antwan Smith and defensive back Jaden Smith all leaving the game hurt. Jaden Smiths injury was described as severe, turning what should have been a momentum-building finish into a far more uneasy evaluation of the roster.
Coach Will Stein said several other players were already unavailable before kickoff, adding another layer of concern as Kentucky shifts its focus to LSU. The Wildcats know they earned something valuable by pulling out a gutty overtime victory, but the challenge now is figuring out how much of that lineup will be intact when the next test arrives. [Read more 🡒]