[SLIDESHOW] Vols keep streak intact in 30-24 overtime win

For one play, it was right there. With 24 years and almost 60 minutes of futility hanging thick in Commonwealth Stadium, freshman quarterback Morgan Newton swept right on a keeper on third and five with a chance to give UK (7-5, 3-5 Southeastern Conference) a lead over Tennessee with less than a minute remaining.

But nothing went right for UK on Saturday in its 30-24 overtime loss to the Vols (7-5, 3-5 SEC). Nothing, that is, except history.

Newton was stopped and though a short field goal forced overtime, Tennessee tailback Montario Hardesty ended the hopes and dreams of UK fans with a 20-yard touchdown dash to cap a career night. The senior in orange finished with 179 yards rushing and three touchdowns to lead the Vols.

“After a game like this, you feel like you’ve let a lot of people down,” Newton said. “You let a senior class down. We had a great turnout of UK fans, you feel like you let them down. Families of seniors, it’s just tough. It’s tough to lose one like that.”

After the game, questions came from all sides about why sophomore wide receiver Randall Cobb wasn’t given the carry out of the Wildcat formation that put the Cats in position for the game-winning touchdown.

UK head coach Rich Brooks said Cobb was playing through cramps so severe they required him to take an IV during halftime. Still, Cobb said he would have liked to have the ball on what could have been the game-winning play.

“At the end of the game is when I’m most hungry,” Cobb said. “I would have loved to have the ball in that situation but I didn’t. The fact of the matter is, we didn’t execute the plays that were called and we have to do that if we want to win those close games.”

Cobb didn’t touch the ball in overtime, either, save for when he held on a missed field goal by senior kicker Lones Seiber after the UK offense went three and out.

The loss spoiled senior night for one of the most successful senior classes in history and gave the Vols their 25th straight win in the series. UK entered the game with a chance to finish in second place the SEC East, but the loss drops them to fifth place and puts them in position to head to another mid-level bowl for the fourth consecutive season.

“It couldn’t have been any tougher,” senior defensive tackle Corey Peters said of his last game in Commonwealth Stadium.

Hardesty’s career night paced the Vols, who finished with 22 first downs to UK’s 13.

“Most of the time, he wasn’t going backwards when we tackled him,” Brooks said. “He was falling forwards. They took the fight to us pretty good I think in the trenches in the second half.”

The Cats entered the game as the least-penalized team in the league but committed six penalties for 64 yards. They also turned the ball over twice on fumbles, one each by Newton and Cobb. Junior tailback Derrick Locke was held in check, rushing for 22 yards on the night.

Though the seniors entered the night as one of the dominant storylines, Newton put much of the blame on himself after the loss. He finished 10-22 on the night for 69 yards.

“I think tonight, I just played like a freshman,” Newton said. “I made some key mistakes. Held the ball (too long), overthrew a couple short, easy routes to running backs. I can’t blame anybody but myself for the small mistakes I made that turned out to be big in the end.”

For everything that the senior class has accomplished, they still failed to end the streak against Tennessee. After another nail-biting loss to the Vols, Brooks picked at his fingernails at the podium when speaking of the Cats who played their final game at Commonwealth Stadium before a season-high crowd of 70,981.

“It’s a pretty sad group of seniors in that locker room right now but they’ve accomplished something that’s never been done here,” Brooks said. “Four straight bowl games, four straight seasons of at least seven wins, which doesn’t make me feel very good right now. And they brought some consistency to Kentucky football that had been missing for at least a half a century.”

Players said they couldn’t have imagined a tougher loss. That seemed to be the flavor of the season, which saw UK lose three conference games by a touchdown or less to keep them from moving out of the dregs of the SEC.

“This (season) could have been better,” Brooks said. “It also could have been worse. It’s not the season I wanted or expected. I expected more, I think our players expected more.”

GAME NOTES

Newton is now 5-2 as UK’s starting quarterback. He finished the regular season with 5 touchdowns and 3 interceptions on 539 passing yards. After the game, Brooks alluded to a potential quarterback battle going forward. “He did some really good things and I think the experience that he has gained will make the quarterback position a pretty interesting battle moving forward,” Brooks said of the freshman’s season … Senior linebackers had a good night for UK. Micah Johnson had 16 tackles to lead all defenders and Sam Maxwell had his sixth interception of the year, which he returned for a touchdown … UK broke its season attendance record for the third straight year thanks to the crowd of over 70,000 at the game.