Pavia's record-setting day leads Vandy to 45-17 win over Cats
Diego Pavia kicked his Heisman Trophy campaign into overdrive on Saturday at the expense of the Kentucky Wildcats.
Vanderbilt’s senior quarterback threw for a school-record 484 yards and five touchdowns while also rushing for 48 yards and a score in leading the Commodores to a 45-17 blowout on Senior Day in Nashville.
Pavia completed 33 of 39 passes, including three touchdown strikes to Tre Richardson, who finished with 159 yards receiving.
“He’s been throwing the ball exceptionally well,” Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops said. “… You don’t really stop him, right? He’s like the great basketball players, where you know they’re going to get their points. He’s going to get some. We just have to get some of our own, and we didn’t do that tonight.
“But he’s clearly a tremendous football player.”
Vanderbilt (9-2) rolled up 604 yards in total offense while holding UK to only 315, and most of those came in the fourth quarter after the outcome had long been decided.
“They played exceptional, and we didn’t play very good,” Stoops said. “I said to the team, I’m really not into flushing things or anything like that. We’re going to own our stuff all the time, look at ourselves in the mirror and take responsibility.”
Kentucky (5-6, 2-6 SEC) saw its three-game win streak come to a close. The Wildcats have one last shot to secure bowl eligibility in their season finale next week at Louisville in the Governor’s Cup game.
The score was only 3-0 in Vanderbilt’s favor at the end of a fast, competitive first quarter, but in quickly unraveled for UK in the second quarter. Pavia hit Richardson for touchdown passes of 71 and 15 yards to put the Commodores up 17-0.
After a Jacob Kauwe field goal got the Cats on the board with 59 seconds left in the half, Pavia connected with Richardson again on a 56-yard TD strike to make it 24-3 at halftime.
That began a run of 28 unanswered points for Vandy to make it 45-3.
Kentucky got a pair of touchdown passes from Cutter Boley in the fourth quarter — 41 yards to JJ Hester and 9 yards to Fred Farrier — but it was far too little, too late for the Cats.
Boley finished the game 26 of 44 for 280 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions.
The Cats’ ground game never got on track, finishing with 31 yards on 19 carries.
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In our regular postgame feature, Cats Illustrated touches on some quick-hitters from the UK loss…
GAME BALL:
Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt — The Heisman hopeful put on a memorable performance for the fans at his final home game as a Commodore, passing for a school-record 584 yards and five touchdowns on an 85% completion day (33 of 39). Oh yeah, he also rushed for 48 yards and a touchdown.
BY THE NUMBERS:
3rd – Highest total yards (604) allowed during the Mark Stoops era at UK.
12 – Touchdown passes by Cutter Boley in SEC play set a new record for a freshman quarterback at UK.
15 – Tackles, eight solo, and 1.5 TFL by Kentucky linebacker Daveren Rayner.
484 – Yards passing by Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia were the most against the Wildcats since Tennessee’s Peyton Manning threw for 523 yards in 1997.
1915 – The last year that Vanderbilt won all of its home games on the schedule.
QUOTABLE:
“He’s the kind of guy who rubs off on their whole team.” — UK head coach Mark Stoops on Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia.
UP NEXT:
Kentucky returns to action next week in the Governor’s Cup game at Louisville. The Cardinals (7-4) lost 38-6 on Saturday at SMU. Kickoff is slated for Noon ET on the ACC Network.