Lynn Bowden Jr. Cements His Legacy In Thrilling Belk Bowl Win

After a thrilling end to a 7-5 season, the Wildcats headed east to Charlotte to bring in 2020 and play a football game after a crazy dance with the Gator Bowl, SEC office, Phil Fulmer and Tennessee. Awaiting the Wildcats at the Belk Bowl were the Virginia Tech Hokies fresh off their own second half resurgence to go from 2-2 to 8-4 following a quarterback change. To say things got heated during the bowl festivities and in pregame warmups would be an understatement.

ESPN’s video of the Kentucky/Virginia Tech scuffle featuring Lynn Bowden pic.twitter.com/xgxOp8YLYo

— Tyler Thompson (@MrsTylerKSR) December 31, 2019

Despite all the action, there was still a game to be played and it turned out to be one of the best of the bowl season. The Wildcats won a thrilling 37-30 contest in the final Belk Bowl securing an eighth win and giving the program even more momentum to carry into 2020. They did it all thanks to another masterful performance from Lynn Bowden Jr.

Offense

The Wildcats collected 404 yards (356 rushing, 73 passing) on 68 plays on their way to posting 5.94 yards per play. UK got plenty of chunk plays on the ground, but the offense was able to put up 17 points on three red zone possessions in addition to being 6 of 13 on third down and a perfect 3 for 3 on fourth down. Only two punts were required and the offense only lost one fumble despite putting the ball on the turf three different times. Once again, Lynn Bowden Jr. was the star of the show.

In his final game in a Kentucky uniform, the Youngstown, Ohio native rushed for 233 yards on a career-high 34 carries in addition to throwing for 61 yards on 12 passes. He had touchdown runs of 25 and 61 yards on two different third downs and willed this offense to a fourth consecutive 30-plus point effort. He was once again spectacular and has a real case at being one of the best players to every play in this program.

Respect to all the players that played @UKFootball @LynnBowden_1 is the best player that has put on the Blue. Go Big Blue.

— CoachMarrowUK (@vincemarrow) December 31, 2019

I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that no one has had a better eight game stretch than the wide receiver turned quarterback.

One of the biggest keys in the game was going to be Kentucky’s ability get production from their backs in addition to Bowden, but that really did not happen. UK’s three-man running back platoon collected just 94 yards on 20 carries with just one touchdown. This trio had produced at a high level, but that was not the case on New Year’s Eve and it was clear that Bud Foster wanted to take away the traditional run game. Despite all that, A.J. Rose played one of the best games of his season despite losing a very important fumble. He had a long first quarter touchdown run taken away for a questionable holding call, but churned out 69 yards on 10 carries with a couple of chunk plays mixed in. That was very nice to see from the upperclassmen before he enters his final season.

On the perimeter, Josh Ali had the best game of his career. The junior from Hollywood, Florida is expected to take over in the slot when Terry Wilson gets back in the lineup next season, but in the last game of his junior season he made some very big plays for the offense. His terrific fourth quarter catch extended game-winning drive and he was rewarded with a touchdown a few plays later. Ali produced a chunk play in his one carry and this performance will provide him a huge springboard entering 2020. He’s a very important piece next season.

The Big Blue Wall once again balled out and outside of a few Logan Stenberg penalties there were really no hiccups. As always, Drake Jackson leads the way in the middle and Darian Kinnard continues to prove that he will be one of the SEC’s better offensive tackles in 2020. With four of the five starters returning, expectations will once again be very high for this group.

It was an awesome game with really a perfect ending. On that final drive, Kentucky drove 85 yards in 18 plays and consumed over eight minutes of clock. With their defense struggling, UK really needed to score but do it with the least amount of time possible. Thanks to a few fourth down conversions and what some considered iffy clock management, they were able to pull it off and this was another masterpiece from offensive coordinator Eddie Gran.

Defense

Kentucky allowed 329 yards (219 rushing, 110 passing) on 55 snaps and Virginia Tech’s 5.98 yards per play number was the highest number allowed since September. The Hokies took care of the football, finished drives with kicks and capitalized on every scoring opportunity. They had six scores on eight possessions when you take out the last possession of each half when they got the ball pack with just seconds remaining. It was one of their best performances of the year.

Where Virginia Tech was really able to hurt Kentucky was on the ground where the 93^rd ranked yards per carry offense put up a season-high 6.64 yards per carry and was able to create a few chunk plays. Deshawn McClease was responsible for two of those 30-plus yard plays on his way to a career-high 126 yards on 11 carries. In addition to that, Hendon Hooker was able to hurt Kentucky with some designed quarterback runs. The Wildcats just could not figure out this ground attack as offensive coordinator Brad Cornelsen did a very good job of keeping UK’s defense off balance. The Hokies were able to get out on the perimeter and their edge players held blocks long enough to create running lanes.

Where Kentucky had some success was creating some havoc. Despite the rushing success of the Hokies, the Wildcats came away with six non-sack tackles for loss with four of those stops coming from Chris Oats and Boogie Watson. Watson was one of the few players that was unable to defeat blocks on the edge while the speed and closing ability of Oats is a major weapon from his inside linebacker position.

On the line of scrimmage, seniors T.J. Carter and Calvin Taylor Jr. both played well in their final game as Wildcats combining for eight tackles. Taylor recorded a big sack to end the first half to cap off the most productive interior line season we’ve seen in the Stoops era. Fellow senior Kash Daniel played perhaps his best game of the season leading the team with eight tackles.

The Hokies were only able to complete 54.55 percent of their 22 passes with a paltry 5.0 yards per attempt average. This was Hendon Hooker’s worst passing performance of the season and he needed two great individual efforts on both of his touchdown throws. Despite the coverage, I think it’s fair to say this secondary did not play its best game.

UK was consistently unable to get off blocks on the perimeter and this was a major reason some of Tech’s runs turned into chunk plays. When plays got to the edge, they could not disengage and it was why the Hokies had a very nice day on offense.

When the chips were down, this group came up with two really big stops. Following A.J. Rose’s fumble at the end of the third quarter, UK found themselves in the danger zone trailing by three. The Hokies started the possession inside the Kentucky 30, but was unable to move the chains and had to settled for a field goal to go up 30-24. On the next possession, Lynn Bowden Jr. would throw an interception and the Hokies would take over on their own 39. Kentucky forced another three-and-out. This setup Kentucky’s final offensive drive. They made the stops when they had to be made.

Special Teams

Before the game on 11 Personnel, yours truly, made the bold proclamation that the Belk Bowl could turn into a puntfest with two of the nation’s top 10 punters. Well, we saw both only twice with Max Duffy looking very pedestrian. That was quite the surprise thanks to an up-and-down game. Where we saw the special teams make a big impact was at placekicker.

Matt Ruffolo got the start for Kentucky at kicker and made all four extra points in addition to a much needed field goal to tie the game on Kentucky’s first possession of the third quarter. On the other side, Virginia Tech’s Brian Johnson was a perfect 3 0f 3 on his attempts with a career-long from 54 yards. Johnson didn’t miss a kick from inside 40 yards all season and he was a hell of a weapon for Justin Fuente’s squad.

In the return department we didn’t see much results as two very good special teams units did what we expected them to do. It was a nice performance for Dean Hood to go out on and Zach Johnson left us with one final big hit on special teams in his final game.

Outlook

After a strong finish to the season followed inking the major part of the school’s best ever recruiting class, the Kentucky football program had a lot of momentum entering the bowl trip. The Wildcats are returning a lot of pieces in 2020, but first they wanted to get one last win for all of the integral guys leaving the program. In a game that was very evenly matched, many felt liked it would be a slugfest. That’s exactly what it became.

The pregame trash talk took up most of the oxygen in the lead up and it was followed by a warmup kerfuffle that had Lynn Bowden Jr. throwing a jab at a Virginia Tech defensive tackle. Add in the spectacle that ESPN put on in Bud Foster’s last game and some questionable Big XII officiating to boot and you had a lot of stuff going on. Despite all of that, both Kentucky and Virginia Tech put on a show at Bank of America Stadium and gave us a terrific bowl game.

In the end, Kentucky rode a 10-0 run in the middle eight to erase a double-deficit lead before a couple timely defensive stops by a unit that had its struggles set the stage for the biggest star in the stadium. Lynn Bowden Jr. and the offense responded with a beautiful 18-play, 85-yard touchdown drive that ate up over eight minutes of game clock and was a perfect send off for this team.

Kentucky scrapped a lot to go all in on an offense with a wide receiver at quarterback and it included limiting possessions, eating clock, playing stingy defense and relying on Lynn Bowden Jr.’s natural instincts and playmaking ability to lead you to victory. We saw each of those things come to fruition in the fourth quarter while Bowden gave us one of the most best individual runs we’ll ever see in college football.

That jersey will be retired.