By Joshua Huff

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Earlier in the day, when South Carolina was losing to UCF, my thoughts drifted back to UK’s win against the Gamecocks.

Should South Carolina lose, and should UK lose to Missouri, what would the value be of the Cats’ win against a beleaguered South Carolina team? It would be hard to argue for progress when you defeat a bad Steve Spurrier team, lose to Florida then to Missouri. You can’t have progress if you can’t win in your conference.

My, how the tides of opinion shift with the passage of time.

South Carolina wins, granted against a terrible UCF team, and UK not only beats No. 25 Missouri, but it, for-the-most-part, controlled the game in route to a 21-13 win. Coincidentally, its first win against a top-25 team in 19 attempts.

Now that’s progress.

And for once this season head coach Mark Stoops can thank his offense for the win, in particular Patrick Towles. The quarterback, a roller coaster of an NFL prospect, has had his fair share of turmoil this season. Namely during the Florida loss, where after fans were calling for his head.

Not tonight.

Tonight he finished 22-for-27 for 249 yards and 2 touchdowns.

“I was telling the team in there that I’m pretty stingy with game balls,” Stoops said. “But I think he deserved one tonight. I thought he played a really good game. He made some really good plays with his feet and was aggressive down the stretch.”

The difference was the performance of the offensive line, and the play of those on the receiving end of Towle’s passes.

On that note, how about tight end C.J. Conrad? Garrett Johnson may have been the lightning, but Conrad was the thunder. The true freshman had his first touchdown of the season and looked like a seasoned pro in route to a 3 catch, 55 yard performance.

“It’s not like we haven’t been running routes within the first three weeks,” offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson said. “It’s the same thing, just let things happen at a natural progression. He played an awesome game today. We had him some awesome routes today that were open, so we got him the ball.”

It’s that easy.

“I don’t really remember it,” Conrad said of his touchdown. “Normally when I get that first one it’s game time.”

Making things easy for Conrad and Co. was the defense. Last year the run defense was questionable. This year, not so much.

Behind Corey Johnson’s career-high 11 tackles, the unit held – granted an underwhelming Missouri offense – the Tigers to just 111 rushing yards. The reason: UK’s offense was able to convert on 9 of 14 third downs, giving the defense time to rest.

UK had the ball 31:02 to Missouri’s 28:58, which is nearly identical, but UK was able to grind the game out with its own run game. JoJo Kemp had 13 rushes for 68 yards and Boom Williams had 7 rushes for 24 yards.

The performance, in all three phases, was a night and day difference than last week.

“When negative things happen, you have to put it behind you and move forward,” Dawson said. “Lets change the day, lets change tomorrow. That was our mentality.”

That’s the mentality that UK needs to carry over into next Saturday’s game against EKU. Just give the Cats some time to celebrate this win against a ranked opponent, it’s been a while.

“That’s huge,” Johnson said. “Just knowing we already felt like we could do it against a great defense like that, it tells a lot.”