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LEXINGTON — If Patrick Towles was nervous in his first start at Kentucky, it never showed even though he admitted he didn’t sleep as well as he wanted Friday night.
The sophomore hit his first four passes, led four straight scoring drives in the first half and was generally in charge of what he wanted to do during Kentucky’s easy 59-14 win over UT-Martin here Saturday in UK’s first season-opening game in Commonwealth Stadium since 2007.
Towles won a three-way battle to become Kentucky’s starting quarterback and played like he more than deserved the job. He had a 23-yard touchdown run in the second half and threw a 29-yard scoring strike to Blake Bone, one of the big freshmen receivers that offensive coordinator Neal Brown said would make the passing offense look better and did.
Towles finished the day 20 of 29 passing for 377 yards and one touchdown in three quarters. He had seven completions of 20 or more yards — something that has not happened the last few years at Kentucky — including a 79-yard catch and run to Demarco Robinson and 59-yard connection with Ryan Timmons. Throw in his 30 total rushing yards and that’s 407 total yards — or 40 more than Jared Lorenzen, another Fort Thomas product, had in his UK starting debut against Louisville in 2000 and the most productive start for a UK quarterback since Dusty Bonner’s 409 yards in 1999.
“Patrick doesn’t lack for confidence, which is a good thing. He thinks he can make every run and every throw,” said Kentucky offensive coordinator Neal Brown. “I knew he would be ready. On Wednesday, he had the best practice he’s had since I have been coaching him. I sent him a text the next morning and told him that. It’s not like he has not played under pressure. The quarterback at Highlands has pressure. I knew he would handle it and he did a good job.
Add the 43-yard completion from backup Reese Phillips to freshmen T.V. Williams and UK had four pass plays over 40 yards — or just two less than all of last year.
Even better, the Cats hit home runs in the running game, too. Nebraska transfer Braylon Heard went 73 yards for a touchdown on his first carry. His next carry, he went 43 yards for another score that included a nifty move around the 5-yard line that got him into the end zone. Freshman Mikel Horton also had 19- and 14-yard scoring runs as the Cats amassed 234 yards on the ground and had 656 overall — the fourth most in school history.
“It was nice just to be out there and having so many guys make plays around me,” Towles, who thought he was “sharp” in Wednesday’s practice but nothing extra special, said. “This was definitely a confidence boost and a good game all around. It was a lot of fun, but there is a lot more fun to be had.”
He could be right.
Defensively, Kentucky got close to its first shutout since 2009 before yielding two fourth-quarter scores that were about the only thing coach Mark Stoops was not happy about. However, the defense got an 89-yard fumble return for a score by Khalid Henderson, a spectacular one-handed interception by A.J. Stamps and another interception by Fred Tiller. Remember, UK’s secondary had just one interception all of last year.
“Very pleased with the team’s effort,” Stoops said. “I felt like we had a good attitude in practice and guys were really focused and energetic. Lot to correct, but overall we did a lot of good things.”
Stoops said it was “important” to show the work the team had done was pushing the program forward. He said his team had “bought in” to everything and he expected the Cats to play well against an outmanned UT-Martin and it was “good to see” that they did.
Towles had the most eyes watching him. Brown was not thrilled with two “bad decisions” he made on the first series of the season half. However, the offensive coordinator was thrilled with the good plays Towles made on the next series to get UK back into the end zone.
“It’s extremely important to come back after making a bad play. It does no good to dwell on what has already happened,” Towles said. “I made mistakes and fixed them.”
Just like he fixed the problems Brown told him he had that resulted in him being redshirted last year and having to watch Jalen Whitlow and Maxwell Smith labor at quarterback during UK’s 2-10 season.
“The quarterback has to be under control and do what is expected and execute the offense,” Towles said.
He said once he got hit early in the game, any pressure he felt went away.
“The pressure was off as soon as I got hit. I had not started a game since the state championship (at Highlands his senior year), but this was fun,” Towles said.
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