By the Numbers: UK 42, Tennessee Tech 10

Cats Illustrated takes a deeper dive into the numbers from Kentucky’s 42-10 win against Tennessee Tech on Saturday. The win moves Kentucky to 5-5 overall meaning the Wildcats have two chances to achieve bowl eligibility over the next couple of weeks.

Here are the most telling numbers from UK’s win.

207 … Rushing yards for the Cats. That was a team effort. Boley chipped in with his long touchdown run. Jason Patterson averaged 5.8 yards per carry on four attempts. Tovani Mizell got into the game. But it was 30 carries for 155 yards between Seth McGowan (3 TDs) and Dante Dowdell (TD) that established control of the game from the first quarter for the Cats. Boley only had to attempt 21 passes because of that run game.

204 … The yardage difference between Kentucky (468) and Tennessee Tech (264). That’s about the difference that Tennessee Tech enjoys on average against the opponents it faced before Kentucky. Welcome to SEC football.

86% … Cutter Boley’s completion percentage. He was 18/21 for 236 yards and a touchdown. It was the kind of extremely efficient performance you wanted to see from the young quarterback against an FCS team. This was not a letdown performance for Boley.

78 … Yards after the catch for Kendrick Law. He was the star of the game for the Wildcats. Law had 124 receiving yards, which was more than half of Kentucky’s team total, and more than half of Law’s receiving yards came after the catch. That YAC and all-purpose ability is why the program targeted Law.

11 … Catches for UK receiver Kendrick Law. He had 124 yards. Most impressive, those 11 catches came on 11 targets so he had a 100% catch rate in the game. This was one of the best games a Kentucky receiver has had in a really long time and it will probably stay mostly under the radar because of the opponent. But the receivers have improved over the course of the season under L’Damian Washington.

6 … Touchdowns scored by the Kentucky offense. That came on nine drives. Another drive at the end of the game went 11 plays for 61 yards. The Wildcats consistently executed on offense against one of the best defenses at the FCS level so that’s at least something.

5 … Three Kentucky players led the team with five tackles apiece. Daveren Rayner, Ty Bryant, and Grant Godfrey each had five tackles. That speaks to the fact that UK’s defense was able to stay off the field. Tennessee Tech had the ball for 27 minutes and only ran 55 plays, 10 less than UK.

5 … Three-and-outs forced by the Kentucky defense. UK didn’t totally shut down the Tennessee Tech offense but that number of three and outs in a game that didn’t see too many series for either team is very good. Kentucky’s offense only had one three-and-out by comparison. UK had 10 more first downs (25-15) than Tennessee Tech.

0 … Turnovers committed by Kentucky. Throw in the fact that the Wildcats were only penalized three times for 20 yards and it was a very clean game. That’s one of the things you want to see to feel good about the performance when it’s otherwise a mismatch.