‘Cold-Blooded’ Kenny Minchey leads Kentucky to another massive SEC road win

Kentucky is 4-1 to start the Will Stein era, 2-1 in SEC play. Both of those league wins came away from Kroger Field, making Stein the first coach in program history to win his first two SEC road games. A big reason the Cats are now road warriors? Stein’s quarterback, Kenny Minchey. Minchey was superb at South Carolina, just as he was at Texas A&M two weeks ago. The senior signal caller completed 28-of-41 passes (68.3%) for 272 yards, three touchdowns, and zero interceptions in the 35-34 overtime win. He is the first Kentucky quarterback with those numbers in a SEC road game since Jared Lorenzen at Vanderbilt in 2001. All three of Minchey’s touchdowns came after halftime, including the 6-yard throw to Henry Boyer in overtime and the game-winning two-point conversion toss to Willie Rodriguez. With Minchey dialed in, Kentucky was able to rally from 17 points down to clinch the victory and snap South Carolina’s four-game winning streak in the series. “He was cold-blooded tonight,” Will Stein told Tom Leach. “Now, that dude was playing. He had a different look in his eye.” Kentucky’s win is even more impressive when you consider how the game began. In the first quarter, the Cats couldn’t do anything against the Gamecocks, totaling just 18 yards and one first down. South Carolina was the aggressor, sacking Minchey twice, even with Dylan Stewart out due to a suspension. Like in College Station, Minchey and his teammates got right back up off the mat. He put his body on the line, rushing for four first downs, two in the fourth quarter. If you take out the sack yardage, he finished with 31 yards rushing. “I mean, laying out for his teammates,” Stein added to Leach. “He got sacked, got right back up. That’s a tough guy, and it’s hard, man. It’s a lonely position. The head coach, the coordinators, and the quarterback, they get more than anybody else. So, for him to go out there in this environment to play that way shows me that he’s the right guy for the job. He did a hell of a job tonight.” Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content. Kentucky’s resiliency is remarkable, especially for a group with over 60 newcomers. Minchey and his teammates credited Stein’s “one-play” mentality for helping them shake off the slow start. Playing faster in the second half also made a difference. “I’ll say just having a one-play focus because you never know when a big play is going to come. So, obviously, we didn’t come out here being like, hey, we’re gonna start slow in the first quarter and crank it back up, but yeah, just everybody doing their job, and things just started to click. “Obviously, I think we started to go a little bit more tempo. That definitely helped us out, and the coaches were calling great plays, and receivers were getting open. O-line was blocking, we were running the ball, and then yeah, just everybody just doing their job, really.” When Rodriguez went up on his tiptoes to snag Minchey’s toss on the two-point conversion, Stein was jubilant, leaping in the air and pumping his fists as he ran onto the field to celebrate with his team. When the SEC Network’s Michella Chester called him over for an interview, Stein paused to pull Minchey in for a hug as he walked by, his face twisting in emotion. “I mean, he’s elite,” Stein said in the postgame press conference. “He’s so calm in the chaos and very proud of him. This is a giant growth moment for him, being down the way that we were, battling back. You know, no panic, no nothing. Just, hey, next-play mentality, and he was excellent tonight.”