NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Will Levis threw for 178 yards and two touchdowns as Kentucky beat Vanderbilt 34-17 on Saturday at Vanderbilt Stadium.
The Wildcats (7-4, 5-3 SEC) jumped to a 31-3 lead at halftime. The Commodores (2-8, 0-6 SEC) lost their fifth in a row.
Vanderbilt quarterback Mike Wright, who started the second half, threw for 58 yards and two touchdowns. Patrick Smith had 84 yards rushing for the Dores.
Vandy now heads out on the road for its final two games of the regular season, starting with a trip to Ole Miss (8-2, 4-2 SEC) at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 20.
In Saturday’s contest, after Kentucky’s defense forced a stop to open the game, the Wildcat offense took the ball on its own 15 and put together a 10-play drive that chewed up 5 1/2 minutes and ended with Levis’ 6-yard touchdown pass to Wan’Dale Robinson.
Vandy responded with a 48-yard field goal courtesy of Joseph Bulovas, making it a 7-3 contest with 44 seconds left in the opening quarter.
Levis’ second touchdown pass of the game came from 22 yards out, a lob to tight end Izayah Cummins into the left corner of the end zone. That made Levis 7-for-7 passing at that point with his team ahead 14-3.
On the ensuing drive, on the Vanderbilt 33, Ken Seals was picked off by Jalen Geiger, and the Kentucky safety took it 31 yards the other way to the house. The Wildcats led 21-3 with 13:09 left in the half at that point.
Chris Rodriguez put Kentucky ahead 28-3 with 10:43 to go in the first half. Seven minutes later Matt Ruffolo made a 25-yard field goal giving the Wildcats a 31-3 advantage.
Kentucky took that lead to the locker room after totaling 278 yards of offense and scoring on four of five drives. The Wildcats averaged just less than 10 yards per play.
Wright started the second half at quarterback for the Commodores and led a 12-play drive that covered 72 yards and ended with an 8-yard touchdown pass to Chris Pierce. A successful two-point conversion got Vandy to 31-11 with 5:53 left in the third quarter.
Ruffolo made a 32-yard field goal for Kentucky early in the fourth quarter upping the score to 34-11, but Wright led another long scoring drive (11 plays, 75 yards) to close the gap to 34-17 thanks to an 8-yard strike on a slant to Amir Abdur-Rahman.
That score came with just 7:33 on the clock, not enough time for the Commodores to complete the comeback.
• Abdur-Rahman had two reception for nine yards before Saturday. He finished the game against Kentucky with seven catches for 65 yards and his first touchdown since Sept. 26, 2020.
• Abdur-Rahman matched a career high with seven receptions.
• Vandy’s Malik Langham recorded his first career sack in the second quarter.
• Pierce, a wide receiver, recorded his first career interception while playing defense on the final play of the second quarter.
• Vanderbilt recognized 30 seniors prior to Saturday’s game, 11 of whom started.
• Kentucky now leads the series with Vanderbilt 48-42-4.
• The Commodores have now lost 19 SEC games in a row.
• Attendance on Saturday was announced as 25,798.
Commodores Drop Home Finale by Vanderbilt Athletics on Exposure href=”https://exposure.co” style=”text-transform:uppercase”>Exposure
