Kid Cats' success reason for hope in defeat

GAINESVILLE, Fla.

How do Mark Stoops and his University of Kentucky football team recover from that?

Their 36-30 triple-overtime loss to Florida on Saturday night at The Swamp is the kind that can haunt. It's the closest the Cats (2-1, 0-1 SEC) have come in a dozen years to snapping the nation's longest losing streak against a single opponent. The Gators (2-0, 1-0) have now won 28 straight in the series.

"Don't. Don't. Don't even bring that up," offensive coordinator Neal Brown said. "We had a chance to break it."

After seeing that slip away, how does Kentucky pick up the pieces? Pretty simple, actually. By focusing on those pieces, the ones this coaching staff has accumulated on the recruiting trail over its first 20 months on the job, and how quickly they seem to be falling into place.

Four true freshmen combined to catch 14 passes for 262 yards and three touchdowns against Florida.

"That's why we recruited them," said Brown, who found a topic he was more enthusiastic about discussing. "They're not scared of this moment. It got loud in there (Saturday). It got loud. This was a big-time environment. They never blinked, and I'm not surprised one bit. I'm zero surprised. That's why we recruited them and that's why a lot of people in the country recruited them.

"They're big-time playmakers, and they made a bunch of big plays."

It was Garrett Johnson's turn to break out. Coaches raved about him early in preseason camp before a finger injury slowed his ascent of the depth chart. He watched as fellow freshmen Mikel Horton and Stanley "Boom" Williams combined for three rushing touchdowns and Dorian Baker and Blake Bone each caught touchdowns in UK's first two games.

Johnson did not start either of those games and caught a total of three passes for 25 yards. Then, out of the blue and when the Wildcats needed it most, he went off against the Gators: six catches for 154 yards and two touchdowns. Those are numbers not seen at Kentucky since Randall Cobb was wearing blue.

The 5-11, 176-pound Johnson recorded the most receiving yards by a Wildcat since Cobb's 171 against Mississippi State in 2010. He's the first freshman to snag two touchdowns in a game since Cobb against Arkansas in 2008.

"He was the guy early that we knew was very smooth, very precise, knew the offense, very mature," Stoops said. "He got dinged up a little bit, and that's hard for a freshman – set him back a little bit – but we were very high on him all along. He's going to be a very good football player."

Quarterback Patrick Towles, who threw for 369 yards against Florida, called Johnson "special" after watching him catch consecutive passes for 60, 30 and 33 yards. On the first, he snared a deep ball along the sideline and shook his man to finish the long touchdown. He set up his second score with a leaping, twisting catch between defenders, holding on even after he was hammered by one of them.

Johnson scored a walk-in touchdown on the next play. He's now one of five true freshmen who've combined for nine touchdowns in Kentucky's first three games.

"It felt like I was finally here," he said. "We see progress in how we played (Saturday). We didn't come out with the victory – what we expected or what we wanted – but that'll just be fuel for the fire. Just continue to get better, use that as energy, motivation for the weeks to come."

The Cats have this week off before a struggling Vanderbilt team comes to town Sept. 27. That next game, next step, is what the players wanted to talk about in the aftermath of Saturday's defeat. All were down, but none despondent.

The survival of a losing streak that predates their birth by several years did not seem top of mind.

"The past is the past," Johnson said. "Most of us weren't even here."

Williams wasn't just a few months ago. But like so many talented newcomers, he's quickly made his mark, following up a 53-yard touchdown run in Week 2 against Ohio with what would've been an all-time Kentucky highlight had the Cats won Saturday.

On the first play of the first overtime, Williams caught a short pass going right and reversed field, all the way back to the left sideline for a 25-yard, go-ahead score. It was so good that Brown, who has refused to use his nickname, said he's "gonna have to call him 'Boom' after that play."

"It's definitely something we can build on," Towles said. "We expected to win this game. We came down off the plane ready to win this football game. It didn't happen (but) these new players, these freshmen and sophomores that we've got, it's just a testament to … how good (Stoops) is on the recruiting trail. He went out and got those playmakers to succeed and excel in moments like these. They did that tonight."

Kyle Tucker can be reached at (502) 582-4361. Follow him on Twitter @KyleTucker_CJ.