Sunday, September 12, 1999
KENTUCKY 45, CONNECTICUT 14
Unimpressive 'Cats offend Mumme, opponent
BY NEIL SCHMIDT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEXINGTON, Ky. — This was supposed to be the only uneventful Saturday on Kentucky's football schedule. It was anything but.
There was an embarrassing deficit, the first boos in the Hal Mumme era, a halftime tirade, an eventual pour-it-on blowout and a postgame snub. And — reading between the lines — great cause for concern.
“Hey, let's face it, we weren't playing Florida there,” Mumme said after his team's 45-14 beating of visiting Connecticut. “Connecticut's going to be a good team in (Division) I-AA, but we kind of sat around and let them do whatever they wanted to for a while.”
The final margin was cosmetic. This was a game UConn led by a touchdown until the final play of the first half, a game that was tied until two minutes remained in the third quarter, a game that was close until UK set a school record for fourth-quarter points (28).
And this was a UConn team that lost 56-17 to I-AA Hofstra last Saturday.
“You could hear the murmurs (from fans), like, "Are they going to let UConn come in and beat us?'” UK defensive lineman Dennis Johnson said. “The thoughts go through your head: If we lose this, are we going to win a game?”
It wasn't that UConn (0-2) played well. The Huskies committed three turnovers, dropped several passes and missed tackles all afternoon.
UK (1-1) played down to the level of the opposition, long enough to leave red-faced.
“It was very embarrassing,” senior running back Anthony White said. “We were thinking, "We're losing to a team we should score 80 points on.'”
The afternoon began innocently enough, as UK drove 70 yards for a score on the game's opening drive. But a White fumble on his own goal line led to UConn's tying touchdown, and the Huskies later marched 99 yards on a tortuous 10-minute, 20-play scoring drive to take a 14-7 lead.
That came with 1:42 left in the first half. A couple hundred fans left, and scattered boos rained down. But UK mustered an eight-play, 61-yard drive, converting a fourth-and-8 play and getting help from a questionable penalty to tie the score with four seconds left.
Mumme loosed his anger in the locker room.
“I threw a bottle of Gatorade against the wall, cussed a lot, yelled at everybody in sight, nearly had a nervous breakdown, and then I kind of calmed down and got ready for the second half,” he said.
Said Ryan Murphy, the sophomore linebacker from Moeller, “It took halftime to realize who they were, who we are, and that we should be dominating them.”
The defense did, keeping UConn from advancing past its own 34 after halftime. The Huskies weren't impressed, insisting it was merely their own offense self-destructing.
“I'm not taking anything away from their defense, but I think soft is the way to describe them,” UConn quarterback Brian Hoffmann said.
UK's offense finally got going. Quarterback Dusty Bonner completed a school-record 16 consecutive passes in one stretch — he finished 34-of-40 for 339 yards and four TDs — and UK outgained UConn 199 yards to 13 in the final frame.
UK poured it on, as Bonner was still throwing on the game's final play. The finishing flurry enraged UConn coaches Randy Edsall, who ordered his staff and players off the field to avoid the traditional postgame handshake.
Asked if UK lacked sportsmanship, Edsall said: “You saw what we did (skipping the handshake). That speaks for itself.”
When told of that remark, Mumme said, “If they think that's tough, maybe they shouldn't take the ($275,000 guarantee) check.”
White, who fumbled away two of his first five carries, recovered to rush for 119 yards and a TD on 19 carries. Bonner completed passes to nine different receivers.
“We'll try to write this one off as a bad day,” Johnson said. “But we can't have a bad half like that against anyone else on our schedule.”
THIS AND THAT: Bonner's 16 consecutive completions broke the school record of 13, set three different times by Tim Couch. ... UK's 28 points in the fourth quarter broke the old mark of 21 fourth-quarter points set against Kent (1993) and Mississippi State (1973). ... UK has thrown for more than 300 yards in 15 consecutive games.
Connecticut ....... 7 7 0 0—14
Kentucky ....... 7 7 3 28—45
First Quarter
UK—Whalen 3 pass from Bonner (Samuel kick), 10:51.
Conn—Taxiltaridis 6 pass from Hoffmann (Cammuso kick), 8:31.
Second Quarter
Conn—Small 9 run (Cammuso kick), 1:42.
UK—McCord 9 pass from Bonner (Samuel kick), :04.
Third Quarter
UK—FG Samuel 21, 2:05.
Fourth Quarter
UK—Bonner 5 run (Samuel kick), 11:59.
UK—A. White 9 pass from Bonner (Samuel kick), 9:02.
UK—A. White 2 run (Samuel kick), 4:58.
UK—McCord 6 pass from Bonner (Samuel kick), 2:21.
A—63,879.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Connecticut, Small 11-43, Chandler 9-17, Perrin 3-6, Hoffmann 10-minus 6; Kentucky, A. White 19-119, Shanklin 6-19, McCord 1-14, Bonner 10-8, Homer 1-2.
PASSING—Connecticut, Hoffmann 15-29-1; Kentucky, Bonner 34-40-0.
RECEIVING—Connecticut, Fitzsimmons 10-87, Feschak 1-9, Timko 1-8, Chandler 1-8, Taxiltaridis 1-6, Drayton 1-5; Kentucky, Davis 8-69, Whalen 7-70, Allen 5-55, A. White 4-39, Pyatt 3-38, McCord 3-25, Simms 2-29, Blizzard 1-7, Harrison 1-7.
Connecticut Kentucky
First downs 12 27
Rushed-yards 33-60 37-162
Passing yards 123 339
Sacked-yards lost 4-18 3-23
Return yards 0 37
Passes 15-29-1 34-40-0
Punts 8-41.6 3-46.3
Fumbles-lost 2-1 2-2
Penalties-yards 3-25 8-76
Time of possession 29:44 30:16 ;
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