LEXINGTON, Ky. — Georgia junior quarterback Aaron Murray was so in the zone Saturday night at Kentucky that he didn’t even realize it was the best night of his career.
He set a career high with 30 completions and 427 passing yards in leading the No. 12 Bulldogs to a 29-24 victory.
“I didn’t have time to think about any of that,” Murray said. “I knew we had to play well to win, and we needed all the time we had to come away with the win.”
The Bulldogs (6-1) led 22-17 early in the fourth quarter of the SEC game when a critical play vaporized all of Kentucky’s momentum. Georgia was set to punt from its own 19-yard line. But Kentucky was called for running into the punter, which gave the Bulldogs a first down at their own 25.
Murray then passed for all 75 remaining yards, completing 6 of 7, to give the Bulldogs a 29-17 lead.
The Wildcats answered with a touchdown on their next drive but failed to recover an onside kick with 3:59 left.
Kentucky (1-7) scored a touchdown on the first drive of the game, and it had been a long time since the Wildcats have been able to do that. Before Saturday, they hadn’t scored a touchdown in the first quarter of any game since Nov. 27, 2010, a span of 20 games between first-quarter TD drives.
Kentucky’s Jonathan George had four rushes for 42 yards on the drive, including two third-down conversions, but it was a Morgan Newton 4-yard pass to Aaron Boyd that gave Kentucky its 7-0 lead.
“This whole week of practice, we stressed that one of the major plans would be to be successful in the running game,” George said. “The coaches emphasized to us that we have to come out and run the ball to have a chance to win this game. We all had the mindset to come out aggressive.”
Kentucky outgained Georgia on the ground 206 yards to 77.
Murray’s connections with wide receiver Tavarres King were the lifeblood of Georgia’s three first-half scoring drives. Both touchdowns before halftime were passes from Murray to King; the first a 66-yarder over the top and the second a 1-yard reception.
Murray was 15 of 19 for 243 yards and two touchdowns in the first half. King had six catches for 147 yards and two scores before halftime and finished with nine receptions for 188 yards and two touchdowns.
The sequence just before halftime that gave Georgia its lead may not have happened if it weren’t for a decision by Kentucky coach Joker Phillips to challenge the spot of a ball on a third-down play. The Bulldogs appeared to barely convert a third-and-14 on a pass from Murray to running back Todd Gurley. With seven seconds left and the clock running, Georgia had no timeouts on the Kentucky 27.
But Phillips challenged the spot. The ruling on the field stood and the clock was reset to 17 seconds. Georgia took a 16-14 lead into halftime after converting a 27-yard field goal as the clock hit zero.
Kentucky reclaimed a 17-16 lead in the third quarter on a Craig McIntosh 37-yard field goal, but Murray threw for a touchdown to Chris Conley later in the third to give Georgia a 22-17 lead. It was Murray’s third touchdown pass of the day. One more would come before he realized it was, in a lot of areas, the best day of his career.
“Aaron’s a good football player,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said. “I’m happy for him. I don’t think he’s all that eaten up with records. Maybe one day when he’s looking back on his career or got his son coming to visit Georgia or something and talk about the good ol’ days, maybe. But he’s more concerned about winning right now.”
Notes: Georgia plays No. 2 Florida next week in their annual neutral-field game in Jacksonville, Fla. Georgia is 4-1 in SEC play and Florida is 6-0. If Florida wins, it would hold at least a two-game lead in the SEC East with two games remaining. … Georgia linebacker Jarvis Jones did not play because of a sprained ankle. The junior All-American made the trip to Lexington, but Richt said it was only to spend more time rehabbing the injury with team doctors. Richt was unsure if Jones would return to practice Monday. … Kentucky lost its seventh game of the season and cannot qualify for a bowl game for the second straight year. The Wildcats qualified for six straight bowl games from 2006 to 2011. … Junior linebacker Avery Williamson led Kentucky with 13 tackles and now has double-digit tackles in five of Kentucky’s eight games this season. He entered the week ranked third in the SEC with 9.7 tackles per game.