Kentucky’s defense played better in the second half and got the Wildcat offense the ball back, down 30-27 with 2:12 to play and no timeouts remaining.
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N. Carolina suspends two players • North Carolina cornerbacks M.J. Stewart and Mike Hughes have been suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules, sidelining them for Saturday’s game against Wake Forest. If I play my best game tonight we win.
As United Kingdom coach, Stoops is now 11-19.
Auburn lost consecutive games to LSU and Mississippi State, the former in a 45-21 final score, but send its 2015 season off track and erase its national ranking.
Before the season, this game was regarded as a unsafe trap game for the Tigers.
But on 4th down, linebacker Justin Garrett knifed through the Wildcat offensive line, sacking Towles with 25 seconds left, allowing Sean White to kneel out the clock, snapping Auburn’s streak of five consecutive losses in the SEC dating back to the 41-38 loss to Texas A&M in 2014.
“You’ve got to have the courage to call those plays when they’re not the most popular plays”, he said. The Kentucky prospect completed 27 of 44 of his passes for 359 yards on the night.
Towles went with his first option (Dorian Baker) instead of his second (Garrett Johnson). We made a lot of plays. “So, yeah, I would definitely do that over”.
Mark Stoops will have his Wildcats prepared. They haven’t erased a halftime deficit since September 10, 2011 when they trailed Central Michigan 13-6 at the break and won 27-13.
In the second half, he wasn’t so calm, thanks to a United Kingdom defensive unit that turned up the pressure.
Kentucky had its chances on this night, though.
The Auburn Tigers are not having the season they were hoping to get. A couple were downed inside the Kentucky 20 yard line, and not a single punt could be returned.
Yet they still led by three after three.
For Auburn, this win could be the start of a turnaround. The sack came on a trick play, where Auburn tried to sell a run fake on 3 and long, even pulling both guards like it was a sweep play. They were at home, against a team that they matched up well with, and with more to lose than the Tigers.
“I think it’s very significant”, Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said after the game. “Several in the last two years”, he said.
“That’s what I told the team is that is the glass half full or is it half empty?” This is a re-building process and we have to take one step at a time.
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It would serve all of us well to focus more on the many things Kentucky is doing right. “On offense, we had a few explosive plays for the first time all year, we actually got a rhythm… we wanted to come out and have an aggressive mindset”. “Photo Editor” / Auburn wide receiver Marcus Davis (80) evades the tackle of Kentucky’s A.J. Stamps (1) in the first half. Stoops, who played safety in college and has coached defensive backs his entire career, said you have to credit the defender. And Kentucky’s defense hasn’t been that much better than Auburn’s.
