Avery Williamson made his way to the middle of the Kentucky locker room and his head coach stepped aside to allow the senior leader to speak.
Williamson didn’t say a word about Kentucky’s huge 41-7 victory over Miami (Ohio) on Saturday at Commonwealth Stadium. The linebacker just smiled and handed the game ball to his coach.
“We started a new era,” Williamson said later. “I was glad to be the guy to give it to him.”
And Mark Stoops was glad to earn his first win as a head coach.
“It meant an awful lot to me,” he said. “It really hit me at that moment. That was like a ‘wow’ moment for me.”
Stoops had been so busy trying to get his team past the Western Kentucky loss the week before. He’d been so busy trying to encourage the Cats’ offense, which rewarded him with 675 total yards - the third-most in school history.
He’d been so busy adjusting his defensive scheme (which he did after watching the RedHawks in pre-game warm-ups) and watching as that defense pitched a shutout that the head coach didn’t even think about the moment and what it meant.
“It was really special,” special teams coach Bradley Dale Peveto said. “It was a special moment for all of us.”
It followed a series of special moments for Kentucky (1-1), which won its first game over a Football Bowl Subdivision team in nearly a year. The last one came on Sept. 8, 2012, against Kent State.
“We’re excited about doing some very good things offensively and defensively,” Stoops said. “There’s some real good things to build on.”
Much of that came in the first quarter, which Kentucky dominated 24-7, including outgaining Miami 279-30.
Using both quarterbacks interchangeably and four different receivers, UK racked up 24 points in the opening quarter, the most ever for a first quarter in program history.
Brown’s NASCAR offense, as he’s apt to call it, got off to a speedy start, scoring on its first five possessions, before sputtering some in the second quarter. But by then it was too late for Miami (0-2) to catch up. The RedHawks punted on all but two of their first 10 possessions.
“Hats off to our defense, to the players, because they came to work this week and didn’t fret,” defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot said. “They didn’t get down on themselves from the performance last week. They just focused on getting better.”
Miami’s lone score came off one of a few special teams miscues for the Cats, when Daryl Collins fumbled a punt return and Chris Wade took it in 6 yards for the score. Collins subbed for Demarco Robinson, who left after the opening kickoff with an ankle injury.
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