The Alabama Crimson Tide exploded in the second half for 32 unanswered points to erase a halftime deficit and defeat the Kentucky Wildcats, 45-17, in their SEC opener at Kroger Field in Lexington on Saturday.
No. 12 Alabama (2-0 overall, 1-0 SEC) had to work its way back from a rough start.
Keelon Russell threw a pick six from his own 1-yard line on the Crimson Tide's first series of the game. After linebacker Luke Metz tied it with his own interception return for a touchdown, Kentucky (1-1) went back ahead on the first play of the second quarter when Kenny Minchey hit tight end Henry Boyer for a 20-yard touchdown pass and a 14-7 Wildcats lead.
Thanks to a suffocating Alabama defense in the second half, the Wildcats wouldn't find the end-zone after
Boyer's touchdown catch capped a 13-play, 83-yard drive that chew over six and a half minutes off the clock. Kentucky led 17-13 at halftime, but it was all Alabama the rest of the way.
Following a Minchey fumble that gave the Crimson Tide a short field, freshman EJ Crowell scored on a 3-yard touchdown run with three minutes left in the third to give Alabama its first lead of the afternoon.
Daniel Hill added a 3-yard touchdown with 24 seconds left in the third, and Russell shook off some first-half woes with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Rico Scott in the fourth quarter as Alabama began pulling away. Trae'shawn Brown found the end-zone on a 4-yard run with 4:11 left to cap the scoring.
Conor Talty made three clutch field goals as Alabama battled back. The Crimson Tide finished with 349 yards of total offense while the defense held Kentucky to 209 yards.
Russell was 16-of-23 for 188 yards, and Hill had a career day at tailback with 18 carries for 104 yards. Lotzeir Brooks caught five passes for 54 yards to lead all Crimson Tide receivers.
After the game, first-year Kentucky head coach Will Stein met with reports to discuss his team's loss to the Crimson Tide. Here's what the Wildcats' coach said.
Will Stein reflects on Kentucky's loss to Alabama football
"I thought we started off really good and got some momentum early. The first half, we're right in it. We're up at halftime, which was huge. You come out in the second half and obviously stalled on offense. Our defense had short fields pretty much the whole game. It's hard to defend, so I know the points, 45-17 the scoreboard says, which sucks. But when you're defending a short field virtually the entire half... and we weren't converting on third downs. That was tough on our defense.
"Can't turn the ball over. We obviously created some turnovers, which was a major emphasis of this game so I was proud of the defense to do that. We've got to protect the ball better on offense. Listen, the good thing, the positive thing is we're 1-1. We're not 12 games in. This is the second game of the year. Got a lot to improve on, which is good. The tape will tell us completely where we're at. We've got an opportunity to get better this week and go into a hostile environment in College Station and go attack."
Will Stein explains bizarre fake punt decision in Kentucky's loss to Alabama
With Kentucky trailing 23-17 late in the third quarter, the Wildcats attempted a fake punt from their own 32-yard yard line. Linebacker QB Reese made stopped Henry Boyer short of the to gain for a turnover on downs. Alabama took over and proceeded to score a touchdown on a 3-yard run by Daniel Hill.
"It was a one-score game, and you play to win the game. I know that's an old Herm Edwards quote, but that's true. You've got to be risky at times. If it worked, everybody would think it was great. If it didn't, nobody thinks it's great. So, it's a decision I made. I felt really good about that fake going into this game. We had the look that we wanted and didn't get it. That was disappointing not to get, but I felt like it could spark us on offense to keep up on the field.
"We weren't really changing the field in special teams as much as we would have hoped for, so I felt like that was an opportunity to take advantage of what they showed."
Kentucky football coach explains what Alabama's defense did well in second half shutout
After leading 17-13 at halftime, Kentucky punted twice in the second half, fumbled twice and committed a turnover on downs after the fake punt attempt.
Stein said:
"We were running a lot of the same schemes. (Alabama was) plugging backers pretty quickly. All of our pin/pull schemes were a little bit problematic. We had a TFL on one of those with just a backer plug. Whenever you pull people, those are tough to pick up. I thought (Alabama) did a nice job against our duo schemes later in the second half. We've got to find ways to get the ball on the perimeter to some players in space to help free up our offensive line. It's was good in the first half. We just have to be able to adjust better in the second."
Why Kentucky struggled on first and second down against Alabama's defense
"First down efficiency is good to get yourself into favorable third downs," Stein said. "It's hard to convert third-and-9s, I don't care who you are, what level of football or who you're going against. It's just hard to convert long downs, so first down efficiency is huge. We did some nice stuff early on with some conversions, but obviously not enough.'
Kentucky coach Will Stein shares what impressed him about Alabama's Keelon Russell
"We were attacking his ball security early on and created some takeaways, which is huge," Stein said of Russell. "Caged him in the pocket and then a few times in the second half, he got loose and made some plays in the field. He's a good player. Be something we try to correct."
Stein added later:
"You could easily look at the statistics and say, 'Well, they scored 45.' They did. (Alabama) deserved to win today. We didn't play good enough, but I thought those guys played good football, especially the first three quarters."
Will Stein praises Kalen DeBoer, says losing to Alabama a 'learning lesson' for Kentucky
Stein said when evaluating Kentucky's loss:
"The way that we practice, the way that we plan, the way that we do everything is what I know as a championship level standard. We're not going to change just based on one result. We really trust our process and how we go about things, and this is a great learning lesson for all of us.
"Credit to coach DeBoer and his entire team. That guy wins everywhere he goes. Alabama has really created a standard of excellence in this league, and that's what we're striving for."
Why Kentucky's Kenny Darby and Willie Rodriguez had so many targets against Alabama defense
Rodriguez led Kentucky with eight receptions for 49 yards while the freshman Darby had five catches for 45 yards.
Stein said:
"(Alabama is) a big Cover 2 outlet so what does that look like, really? Cloud on the outside? They were doubling the outside receivers with different variations of Cover 2. So you've got to really work in the middle of the field or the immediate passing game. And then they play (Cover 3) zone and off corners. We tried to take advantage of some man-to-man opportunities on some shots and didn't get those thrown and caught. So, our slot receiver and our tight end end up getting more targets."
Will Stein talks about Kentucky's ability to put pressure on Keelon Russell
"You look at the scoreboard at halftime and it's 17-13... We were feeling really good going back out in the second half. We end up holding them to a field goal on their first drive, which was huge. And then we just stalled on offense, which was disappointing, but it's not for a lack of our players vs. theirs. I think it was just some execution errors. When you get put in third-down opportunities and you don't convert, and you punt it back to a really good offense and wear down your defense, it kind of took a little spin there. They caught momentum, we lost momentum, and it turned out with this result."
Watch Stein's postgame press conference below.
Alabama football schedule 2026
- Sept. 5: vs. East Carolina Pirates (W, 48-10)
- Sept. 12: at Kentucky Wildcats (W, 45-17)
- Sept. 19: vs. Florida State Seminoles, 2:30 p.m., ABC
- Sept. 26: vs. South Carolina Gamecocks, prime time
- Oct. 3: at Mississippi State Bulldogs, early window
- Oct. 10: vs. Georgia Bulldogs, prime time
- Oct. 17: at Tennessee Volunteers, TBA
- Oct. 24: vs. Texas A&M Aggies, TBA
- Nov. 7: at LSU Tigers, TBA
- Nov. 14: at Vanderbilt Commodores, TBA
- Nov. 21: vs. Chattanooga Mocs, 1 p.m., SEC Network+
- Nov. 28: vs. Auburn Tigers, TBA
Record: 2-0 overall, 1-0 SEC.
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This article originally appeared on Roll Tide Wire: What Kentucky coach Will Stein said about Alabama football after loss
