I watched the replay this morning (game started at 1:30am my time, so did not watch it live). I noted that early on and probably through Q2 Kentucky was actively trying to intimidate the Vandy players with cheap shots (head butts, late hits away from the action, etc). I'm all for trying to get a competitive advantage any way you can, but I thought Kentucky's behavior was over the top. But, I also noted that the Vanderbilt players were not intimidated nor did they back down (which I think is a point of differentiation for this Vanderbilt team). By the second half, as they were falling behind by 7, then 10, then 13 points, the cheap shots and trash talk by Kentucky pretty well stopped likely because they realized it wasn't working and they were going to lose.
Separately, I thought one of the UK linemen had a really bad cheap shot on Pavia that wasn't called. It was either late 3rd Q or early 4th. Pavia was a good 5 yards behind where the tackle was being made, yet a UK lineman used a block to throw himself at Pavia and then leg whip him. He sold it pretty well as being blocked into Pavia and no penalty was called, but it sure looked like he was specifically trying to injure Pavia and Pavia did come up gimpy after the leg whip.
Separately, I thought one of the UK linemen had a really bad cheap shot on Pavia that wasn't called. It was either late 3rd Q or early 4th. Pavia was a good 5 yards behind where the tackle was being made, yet a UK lineman used a block to throw himself at Pavia and then leg whip him. He sold it pretty well as being blocked into Pavia and no penalty was called, but it sure looked like he was specifically trying to injure Pavia and Pavia did come up gimpy after the leg whip.
