Pittsburgh 27, Kentucky 10
When: 12:00 PM ET, Saturday, January 8, 2011
Where: Legion Field, Birmingham, Alabama
Temperature:
47°
Head Official:
Tom DeJoseph
Attendance:
41207
By SportsDirect Inc.
Pittsburgh was able to deal with its distractions a little better than Kentucky, and it resulted in a 27-10 victory in the Compass Bowl on Saturday at Legion Field.
The Panthers (8-5) were playing for interim head coach Phil Bennett, their third coach in the last month after Dave Wannstedt resigned under pressure and former Miami-Ohio coach Mike Haywood, who was hired to take over for Wannstedt, lasted less than a week, before being fired after an arrest on a domestic battery charge.
With all that was going on, Bennett got the Panthers ready to play, especially on defense. They held a Wildcat offense that had been averaging 33 points a game in check.
Tino Sunseri threw a touchdown pass and ran for another, while Dion Lewis and Ray Graham led a Pittsburgh rushing attack that picked up 263 yards.
A pair of field goals by Dan Hutchins and a one-yard touchdown run by Sunseri in the second quarter gave Pitt a 13-3 lead at the half.
Sunseri found Brock DeCicco for a 13-yard scoring strike early in the third quarter to make it 20-3, and Lewis capped the scoring with a two-yard touchdown run in the fourth.
Lewis finished with 106 yards on 22 carries, while Graham had 91 yards on 17 attempts.
Kentucky (6-7) was also dealing with distractions and played without starting quarterback Mike Hartline, who was suspended after alcohol-related arrest. Morgan Newton got the start under center for the Wildcats and completed 21-of-36 passes for 212 yards and was sacked four times.
Top Game Performances
Rushing
| Kentucky |
|
Pittsburgh |
|
Derrick Locke
|
Player |
Dion Lewis
|
|
12 |
Attempts |
22 |
|
71 |
Yards |
105 |
|
5.9 |
Avg Yards |
4.8 |
|
0 |
Touchdowns |
1 |
|
0 |
Long |
0 |
Receiving
| Kentucky |
|
Pittsburgh |
|
Randall Cobb
| Player |
Mike Cruz
|
|
5 |
Receptions |
2 |
|
62 |
Yards |
24 |
|
12.4 |
Avg Yards |
12.0 |
|
0 |
Touchdowns |
0 |
|
0 |
Long |
0 |
Team Stats Summary
| |
Yards |
Scoring |
Defense |
| Team |
Tot |
Rus |
Pas |
TD |
FG |
INT |
Sck |
FF |
| Kentucky
|
315 |
104 |
211 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0.0 |
0 |
| Pittsburgh
|
359 |
263 |
96 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
1.0 |
1 |