Will Stein didn’t play for the tie in Columbia. He went for the kill.
After Kentucky climbed all the way back from a 17-0 hole, the first-year Wildcats coach trusted his offense to finish the job in overtime, and quarterback Kenny Minchey delivered. Minchey hit Willie Rodriguez in the back of the end zone for a two-point conversion that sealed a 35-34 win over South Carolina at Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday.
The gamble came after South Carolina had struck first in overtime. LaNorris Sellers found Maurice Brown on a five-yard touchdown, and the extra point pushed the Gamecocks ahead 34-27. Kentucky answered with Minchey’s six-yard touchdown pass to Henry Boyer, trimming the margin to one and setting up Stein’s decisive call: go for two and win it right there, or kick the extra point and keep playing.
Stein chose the aggressive route. Minchey made it count.
“A band of brothers came to Columbia, South Carolina for the win,” Stein said afterward, according to LEX 18.
It was the kind of finish that matched the way Kentucky spent the rest of the afternoon clawing back into the game. The No.
24 Wildcats had fallen behind by 17 early in the second quarter, but they kept working until the score flipped in their favor. A C.J.
Baxter touchdown run and an Adam Zouagui field goal helped Kentucky chip away before halftime, though South Carolina still carried a 20-10 lead into the break.
Then the Wildcats took over for a stretch. Minchey found freshman Kenny Darby for a 17-yard touchdown early in the third quarter, and later in the period he connected with Nic Anderson on a 32-yard score to give Kentucky its first lead at 24-20. South Carolina answered again, and Zouagui eventually tied it with a 29-yard field goal with 4:14 left in regulation, sending the game to overtime after Kentucky had erased the deficit, surrendered the lead, and fought back once more.
Minchey finished with 272 passing yards and three touchdowns. Darby had 12 catches for 96 yards and a score, while Anderson added five receptions for 80 yards and a touchdown.
The victory gave Kentucky a 4-1 record and a 2-1 mark in SEC play. South Carolina dropped to 2-3 overall and 0-3 in the conference.
For Kentucky, it was another road win to go with the earlier victory at Texas A&M, and another sign that this team can recover when the day starts going sideways. The Wildcats now return home to face LSU on Oct. 10.
In Other News...
South Carolina Suddenly Has A Coaching Question Fans Cant Ignore
South Carolinas season has reached an uneasy point, with the Gamecocks sitting at 0-3 in SEC play under Shane Beamer in his sixth season. The timing only makes the pressure feel heavier, especially with the teams best player, Dylan Stewart, suspended indefinitely after an altercation that has added another layer of uncertainty around a program already searching for answers.
Shane Beamers job is not suddenly on the line by one bad stretch alone, but the conversation around the coaching staff is no longer hypothetical. With the SEC skid mounting and outside speculation already turning toward possible replacements, the question for South Carolina is less about whether fans are noticing and more about how long the school can afford to let the uncertainty linger. [Read more 🡒]
Gamecocks Blew Another Winnable SEC Game And The Questions Are Growing
South Carolina had this one in hand long enough to make the ending sting even more, building a 17-point lead before letting No. 24 Kentucky claw all the way back in a 35-34 overtime loss. The game fit a frustrating pattern for the Gamecocks, who had chances to put it away but kept leaving openings with a Jabree Coleman fumble and failed fourth-down tries that changed the feel of the afternoon in a hurry.
The defeat was another rough marker in SEC play, stretching South Carolinas conference skid to eight straight and undercutting a four-game winning streak over Kentucky that had helped balance the rivalry. For Shane Beamer, the bigger concern is that these losses keep coming in games that feel winnable, which only deepens the questions around what this team has to clean up before the schedule tightens again. [Read more 🡒]
Shane Beamer Debate Just Got More Uncomfortable For South Carolina Fans
South Carolinas latest SEC setback left another uneasy postgame scene for fans already watching a troubling slide, and it came with an unexpected twist from the other sideline. After Kentuckys 35-34 overtime win, Wildcats coach Will Stein took time in his press conference to praise Shane Beamer, calling the Gamecocks coach elite as South Carolina absorbed its third straight conference loss and a double-digit lead slipped away.
Stein also broke down Kentuckys game-winning two-point conversion in overtime, adding a little more sting to a result that already felt hard enough for South Carolina supporters to process. The Gamecocks have been trying to steady themselves through the league grind, but days like this only sharpen the debate around Beamer and how much patience remains as the losses keep piling up. [Read more 🡒]