UK football snaps four-game losing streak
with 38-14 win over Jacksonville State

For the first time in five weeks, the University of Kentucky football team was able to enjoy the tast of victory Saturday with a 38-14 win over Jacksonville State.

“When you go really five weeks without a win, it’s hard,” said offensive coordinator Randy Sanders. “(When) you lose four games and you have an open date, everything starts tasting like oatmeal with no brown sugar. It’s not what you want. To get a win, there’s no question I’ll probably sleep better tonight.”

“It’s a lot more fun to win. It’s been awhile,” said defensive coordinator Rick Minter. “We forgot the words to the fight song.”

After failing to score more than 10 points in any of its last three games, the UK offense exploded for 445 total yards, including 340 yards on the ground.

The Wildcats were led by junior tailback CoShik Williams, who totaled 148 yards on 22 carries. After a first-quarter ankle injury kept sophomore tailback Raymond Sanders out for the rest of the game, Williams stepped into UK’s feature back role and excelled.

“It was really important, and I mentioned earlier in the week that CoShik had had a really good week – really good two weeks – and it showed up,” said UK head coach Joker Phillips. “It was good to see him get some results out of his hard work because he had done a really good job all week. So it’s very important.  And it was even more important once Raymond went down.”

While Williams paced the UK running game and sophomore Jonathan George added 66 yards and one touchdown on 10 carries, the offensive line deserves some credit for the performance, Phillips said.

“You can’t run well as a running back unless the guys are doing their jobs up front,” Phillips said. “(Williams) was making people miss in the secondary once he got there and running through some tacklers, but they did a good job of getting him started.”

Junior quarterback Morgan Newton finished the game 10-16 for 105 yards and two touchdowns through the air. He added 75 yards and one touchdown on the ground, though he did fumble on UK’s second drive. Junior wide receiver La’Rod King totaled five catches for 84 yards and two touchdowns.

The UK offense stumbled to start the game — with two receivers dropping passes on the first drive and Newton losing a fumble in Jacksonville State territory on the second drive — but Newton and his teammates were able to overcome the early struggles.

“It would have been nice to have caught those balls on the first series, and not to have fumbled on the second series but the guys kept playing,” Sanders said. “They kept playing and trying to make the next play work. Eventually we did.”

Junior safety Martavius Neloms put UK on the board for the first time when he forced a fumble in the first quarter, recovered the ball and ran 40 yards for a touchdown.

“That’s a heck of a play when you cause the fumble, you scoop it and you score it,” Minter said. “That’s a complete trifecta.”

“We needed someone to make a play, and Neloms did,” Phillips said. ”He got a sack, caused a fumble and a return for a touchdown, so that got us going.”

While no one will confuse Jacksonville State with the Southeastern Conference teams left on UK’s schedule, the players and coaches said it felt good to finally get a win and they can carry this momentum into the final five games.

“We had two seasons; we were 2‑4 in the first season, and we got to take one game at a time in this second season. We’re 1‑0,” Phillips said. ”We’ve got to go to work tomorrow, got to get to 2‑0. We’ve got a tough SEC opponent that had an open week to prepare, but we’ve got to deal with it off the open week that we just came off of.”