Cats gain confidence boost needed in blowout win

LEXINGTON, Ky. – No one will confuse Charlotte with a Southeastern Conference powerhouse, but for a Kentucky team desperate for any victory a 58-10 win over the 49ers accomplished one important goal.

“They’re a team we should have beat, and we did,” senior linebacker Josh Forrest said. “I feel like this is definitely a confidence builder going into next week.”

Offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson acknowledged before the game he hoped handing redshirt freshman quarterback Drew Barker his first career start would give the offense the spark it badly needed. Kentucky’s running backs did most of the heavy lifting in the first half against Charlotte, but the offense certainly looked better with Barker at the helm against the first-year FBS opponent.

Kentucky’s 415 rushing yards were the fourth most in a single game in program history. Both sophomore Stanley “Boom” Williams and junior Jojo Kemp topped the 100-yard plateau in the game to give Kentucky its first pair of 100-yard rushers in the same game since Randall Cobb and Derrick Locke accomplished the feat against Vanderbilt in 2010. Freshman running back Sihiem King added to the fun with a 62-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

“It felt really good handing off to those guys and watching them go,” Barker said. “It’s awesome to see them break out like that, get them some confidence going into next week.”

The offense mounted four scoring drives of at least nine plays in the first half to take command of the game with Kemp scoring two touchdowns in the process.

Success bred more success for Kentucky as Williams turned the game into a blowout with four carries for 70 yards and two touchdowns in the third quarter. After Williams was relegated to the bench Kemp continued his stellar night with a 92-yard touchdown drive on which he accounted for every yard.

“We needed that confidence booster,” Kemp said. “Now we’ve just got to go back to work, come Monday and just prepare ourselves for Louisville.”

Kentucky’s defense was able to build on a strong performance in the loss at Vanderbilt by limiting Charlotte to 233 yards and allowing the 49ers to advance past midfield just three times in the game. Charlotte’s one significant scoring threat while the game was still in doubt came in the second quarter when a pass interference penalty against senior safety A.J. Stamps gave Charlotte a first-and-goal play at the UK 5-yard line.

Charlotte actually lost a yard on three shots at the end zone with sophomore nose guard Matt Elam and senior linebacker Josh Forrest combining for a tackle for loss on a first-down carry. After two incomplete passes, the 49ers were forced to settle for a 23-yard field goal.

Kentucky forced three turnovers in the second half. Senior defensive tackle C.J. Johnson grabbed an acrobatic interception that he tipped to himself to set up a field goal, and redshirt freshman safety Mike Edwards picked off a deflected pass and returned it 20 yards for a touchdown to send Kentucky over the 50-point plateau.

The 49ers’ only touchdown came on a drive late in the fourth quarter that started on the Kentucky 9-yard line after a Wildcat fumble.

“I don’t want to take no credit from them, but we was supposed to blow them out anyway,” senior defensive tackle C.J. Johnson said. “I was expecting the score to be like that by the second quarter, honestly.”

For all the talk of Barker adding a spark to the offense, the redshirt freshman quarterback was one of the few Kentucky players to post an inconsistent performance as he completed 16 of 29 passes for 129 yards and gained two yards on six carries. Barker did complete several key third-down passes when the game was still in doubt but spent almost all the second half handing off to his running backs.

Regardless of Barker’s individual performance, Kentucky’s 58 points were the Wildcats’ most since a 59-14 win over UT Martin in the 2014 opener. The performance marked team’s highest point total against an FBS opponent since scoring 63 against Western Kentucky in 2010. The 48-point win was the program’s largest margin of victory since a 77-17 win over UTEP in 2002.

Yes, Charlotte was far from an imposing opponent. The 49ers are playing their first season as an FBS team and just the third season in program history. The loss extended Charlotte’s losing streak to nine games and the team ranks near the bottom of the country in many statistical categories. A blowout win against Charlotte will do little to appease fans if it is not followed by a victory against Louisville in a week.

But after a confidence-boosting victory, you would have a hard time finding anyone in the UK locker room who cared.

“It was very important to win that way in a good fashion, because we just need to improve,” UK head coach Mark Stoops said. “And our team needed that. Our players needed that.”

Email Jon Hale atjahale@courier-journal.com. Follow him on Twitter@JonHale_CJ.