FINAL: Kentucky 59, UT Martin 14

[jbcarol]

UT Martin will use guarantee money to build stadium

For Saturday's game, UK will pay the Skyhawks $410,000.

A good chunk of that money added with ticket sales, and another guarantee game at Mississippi State on Nov. 8, will go toward construction at Tennessee-Martin, Coach Jason Simpson said this week.

"We're building a new stadium this season, starting new construction on the home side, so it's important to us," Simpson said. "For our program, when we play 12 games, it's imperative that we play two of those guarantee games to help us financially."Cats' three non-conference home games this season cost more than $2 million according to contracts with Tennessee-Martin, Louisiana-Monroe and Ohio University.

[jbcarol]

UK is a three touchdown favorite in the guarantee game.

[jbcarol]

Clay: Opening of Kentucky football season an invitation to optimists

Now that Bahamas basketball is over and John Calipari's fantasy campers have crashed back to reality and the UK students have reclaimed campus, we can get down to the important seasonal business at hand and start ourselves a football season.

For Kentucky football, this is a typical season with the typical Kentucky football conundrum. Where UK basketball enters its season attempting to prove people right, Kentucky football enters its campaign hoping to prove people wrong.

And yet the start of any sports season brings with it high hopes of the wildly improbable regarding an endeavor that continues to be highly entertaining...

Column should have said UK went 2-8-1 two years (1975) before going 10-1 in 1977, not the year before.

[jbcarol]

UT Martin Athletics @UTMSports  ·  1h
Players walking through the Skyhawk crowd at the hotel.

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker @KyleTucker_CJ  ·  11m
Get ready for kickoff with Five Things to Watch in today's Kentucky-UT Martin game: http://www.courier-journal.com/story/uk-beat/2014/08/29/uk-utm-five-things-to-watch/14807187/ ...

1. Patrick Towles' debut. The third-year sophomore will make his first career start Saturday, which is a lifelong dream come true for the former Kentucky Mr. Football. He has only attempted 40 passes in college and none since 2012...

4. All the fresh faces. As many as six starters will be playing in their first game for the Cats

5. UT-Martin's Tony Bell and Dylan Favre. Bell is a beast, a 6-1, 200-pound senior linebacker who has 158 tackles, 24 for loss, 14 ½ sacks and five forced fumbles the last two seasons. He's an FCS All-American and leading preseason candidate for that level's National Defensive Player of the Year award...

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker @KyleTucker_CJ  ·  13m
Crowd for the anthem.

[jbcarol]

Jen Smith @jenheraldleader  ·  11m
Seven minutes before kickoff:

[jbcarol]

Bell snuffs UK on a 3rd and 2.

[jbcarol]

UK 4th and 4 near UTM 35.

Incomplete.

[NaturalStateReb]

UTMartin uniforms = commodity cheese version of Auburn

[jbcarol]

UTMartin uniforms = commodity cheese version of Auburn

Clint Richardson® @Clintau24  ·  39m
Therezie locker is set up @AUFAMILY

[jbcarol]

Towles went the same high school as the Hefty Lefty.

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker @KyleTucker_CJ  ·  8s
Towles converts third down with 12-yard pass to walk-on Joey Herrick. Now nine skill guys have already touched the ball for UK.


And a post pattern to Blue inside the five.

[jbcarol]

PI on a slow motion jump ball pass to the back of the corner.

[jbcarol]

JoJo Kemp untouched up the middle for a TD from inside the two.

[jbcarol]

UT Martin 0  UK 7  7:02 1st

[jbcarol]

Towles 6/9   79 yds in the best situation he may face this season.

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker @KyleTucker_CJ  ·  3s
Braylon Heard announces his arrival: 73-yard TD up the middle. Jumped through the hole and GONE.

[jbcarol]

UTM 0  UK 14  1:44  1st

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker @KyleTucker_CJ  ·  12s
Now 14-0 Kentucky, 1:44 first quarter. Towles is 7 of 10 for 86 yards, Cats have 109 rushing yards on nine carries.

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker @KyleTucker_CJ  ·  3s
Braylon Heard: real nice yards-per-carry average. Breaks a 43-yard TD. He's nasty.

[jbcarol]

UTM 0  UK 21  13:10 2nd

[jbcarol]

Ex-State QB Dylan Favre in for UT-Martin.

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker @KyleTucker_CJ  ·  47s
Braylon Heard is the highest-rated (per Rivals) recruit on UK's roster. And he looks every bit of it today.

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker @KyleTucker_CJ  ·  3s
Matt Elam's first career tackle there.

[jbcarol]

Favre converts on 4th down.

Then picked off on the next play inside the UK 10...

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker @KyleTucker_CJ  ·  50s
UK takes over at its own 10. Stamps already with a tackle for loss and a pick. Cats' secondary intercepted ONE pass all season in 2013.

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker @KyleTucker_CJ  ·  36s
From his own 5, Towles hits Timmons down the sideline. He shakes some dudes to make it a 56-yard gain.

[jbcarol]

If he had beat that guy it could have been UK's longest scoring pass since Couch to Yeast against Florida in the late-90s.

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker @KyleTucker_CJ  ·  1m
And a new freshman in on the action: Blake Bone catches inside screen on third and 10, goes 29 yards for TD.

Towles now 11 of 17, 198 yards and a TD in the first half. UK 355 yards to 86. It's 28-0 Cats, 8:10 second quarter.

[jbcarol]

UTM 0  UK 28  8:10 2nd

[jbcarol]

No one else wanted to start at Noon ET/11 AM CT but a better exclusive game to kick off SEC Network Saturdays would have been a better choice.

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker @KyleTucker_CJ  ·  27s
Senior DT Mike Douglas with UK's first sack of the season.

[jbcarol]

All-important Time of Possession   UT-M 14:42     UK 11:34

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker @KyleTucker_CJ  ·  1m
Dorian Baker with a 15-yard catch from Towles on 3rd and 9. Now 12 skill guys have touched the ball today.

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker @KyleTucker_CJ  ·  1m
Freshman Mikel Horton fights for 4 yards on 3rd and 3. Then a terrific jump-ball win by Blake Bone deep down the sideline.

UK is back in the red zone

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker @KyleTucker_CJ  ·  6s
Mikel Horton bulldozes his way for an 18-yard TD run. Broke three tackles on run up the gut.

[jbcarol]

UTM 0  UK 35  :54 2nd

[jbcarol]

Most passing yards in a game by Kentucky:

Lorenzen v. UGa     528 yards
Tim Couch v. Hogs  499 yards

Halftime: Towles, 263 passing yards

Stoops:  Will play his backup in the second half but not specific on when.

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker @KyleTucker_CJ  ·  15s
HALFTIME: Kentucky 35, UT Martin 0. Consider the competition, of course, but this is a start Mark Stoops and the Cats needed.

Kentucky has six plays of 25-plus today already: 44 pass to Blue, 73 and 43 runs (TDs) by Heard, 56 pass Timmons, 29 (TD) and 36 pass Bone.

OC Neal Brown getting that tempo he wants today. Averaged 64 snaps a game last fall. UK has 40 snaps in the first half.


[Number of plays may tend to average out over the season.]

[jbcarol]

Towles  15/22  263 yds  TD
Favre     4/7     33 yds  Big Pick

Braylon Heard, 2 carries, 116 yards, 2 TDs

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker @KyleTucker_CJ  ·  20s
I count twenty players who made their Kentucky football debut in the first half.

266 yards on 16 touches by UK newcomers: Heard (2-116-2TD), Horton (4-24-TD), Boom (3-8), Bone (2-65-TD), Baker (3-29), Johnson (2-24).

[jbcarol]

UK recovers a UT-M fumble on the kickoff.

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker @KyleTucker_CJ  ·  21s
Towles opens with a strike to TE Ronnie Shields for 29 yards. The 13th skill guy to touch it today.

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker @KyleTucker_CJ  ·  35s
Redshirt freshman Austin MacGinnis misses his first career FG attempt, wide right from 41 yards.

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker @KyleTucker_CJ  ·  20s
UK secondary doubles INT output for all of 2013 as Fred Tiller picks one off after UTM drove to Cats' 43. Returned to UTM 43.

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker @KyleTucker_CJ  ·  58s
Kentucky DBs had one pick, whole team had three in 2013. DBs have two today.

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker @KyleTucker_CJ  ·  35s
Towles shows off those wheels again. Rolled out left, looking downfield, but only green grass ahead, so he kept it for 23-yard TD.

[jbcarol]

UT-M 0  UK 42  12:02 3rd

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker @KyleTucker_CJ  ·  1m
First time Kentucky has rushed for five touchdowns in a game since 2008 against Georgia.