Tennessee Throws All Over Kentucky in 56-34 Blowout

Good news: The Kentucky offense has never looked more explosive. Cutter Boley set a freshman record for passing touchdowns. Bad news: Tennessee had even more big plays on its way to a 50-Burger.

Josh Heupel told his wide receivers to go long, and it seemed to work every time. Tennessee scored on the fourth snap of the game, a 35-yard pass to Chris Brazzell. Heupel’s teams have now scored in five plays or less in four out of five meetings against Kentucky. That was just the beginning.

Tennessee completed three passes of 50+ yards in the third quarter alone. Their seven explosive passes accounted for 293 of Joey Aguilar‘s 396 yards. It was a one-score game with a minute left until halftime, and ended with a 56-34 Kentucky loss.

The blowout happened despite the best offensive performance of Bush Hamdan’s tenure. Kentucky scored more than two offensive touchdowns against a Power Conference foe for the first time since Sept. 30, 2023. Cutter Boley broke the UK freshman record with five touchdown passes, the most by a Kentucky quarterback since Andre Woodson threw six vs. Tennessee in 2007.

Boley surpassed 300 yards through the air, and two receivers, DJ Miller and Kendrick Law, went for 100+ yards, yet it was never really a game in the second half. Tennessee scored almost as soon as they touched the ball.

By the fourth quarter, there were more Vols in the stands than Kentucky fans. That’s now happened in two straight rivalry games at Kroger Field. That’s what the end of the road looks like.

Two Terrible Kentucky Turnovers

The first half was about as crazy as it gets. In between a bunch of big plays and touchdowns — the Cats got a 71-yarder from Kendrick Law and a 56-yarder from DJ Miller — were two of the craziest turnovers you’ve ever seen. Of course, they each resulted in Tennessee touchdowns.

On Kentucky’s second possession, Edrees Farooq tipped Cutter Boley’s pass, caught it, and returned it 45 yards for a touchdown. It felt like a deathblow, but credit to Kentucky, the Cats fought back.

That wasn’t even the wildest UK turnover. Hardley Gilmore caught a ball short of the sticks on third down. He tried fighting for enough extra yards to move the sticks. Sometimes, too much fight is a bad thing. He was stripped, then the ball bounced all over the turf. Gilmore eventually recovered it, but then fumbled it again, right into Tennessee’s lap. Four plays later, the Vols were back in the end zone.

No problem https://t.co/Faq1PujBzT pic.twitter.com/U0KAqHSrAo

— Drew Franklin (@DrewFranklinKSR) October 26, 2025

Long Drive, Followed by a Tennessee 2-Minute Drive

The game was getting out of control, playing right into Tennessee’s hands. Kentucky needed to slow things down. It worked almost too well.

The Cats got the ball on the 4-yard line with 10:12 left in the second quarter. Boley methodically moved the ball down the field. The Cats even overcame their short-yardage woes with an impressive 4th and 1 jet-sweep to Law. After 16 plays, Boley connected with JJ Hester, the first of his two receiving touchdowns, in the back of the end zone.

It was a one-score deficit, and Kentucky was getting the ball back to start the second half. All they needed was to keep Tennessee out of the end zone. As you might expect, they did not. Aguilar threw a 13-yard touchdown with five seconds on the clock to extend the lead back to 14. The Tennessee lead only grew from there, leading an embarrassing loss.

Box Score

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