There weren’t a ton of highlights in Kentucky’s 24-16 win over Toledo; the best was undoubtedly the 79-yard touchdown run by Dante Dowdell in the fourth quarter, the longest run of his career and his first score as a Kentucky Wildcat.
On 1st and 10, the Nebraska transfer took the handoff from Zach Calzada and essentially went untouched to the end zone. He finished with 14 carries for a team-high and career-best 129 yards, the most rushing yards for a Kentucky player in the season opener since Boom Williams’ 135 yards vs. Louisiana Lafayette in 2015. As Alex Afari told the SEC Network this week, “Dante Dowdell runs like he’s angry at the ground.”
“You saw how he was running,” Afari said of Dowdell afterward. “He had a big run. I didn’t know he was that fast. He came out there and did a good job today.”
“Dante, there was an impressive run after the long drive that Toledo had to cut it [to eight],” Mark Stoops said in his postgame press conference. “And a one-play drive, and Dante rips off the touchdown run. You can see the big guy, we talked about in the offseason, yes, he’s a big boy and he’s powerful, but he showed great speed there again to take it for a 79-yard run.”
As Stoops said, at 6’2″, 227 lbs., Dowdell has a reputation as a short-yardage back, but today, he proved he can make some explosive plays as well.
“I want to change the narrative on me,” Dowdell told reporters. “I’m still going to be a power back, but I still want to let everyone know that I can break my runs too.”
They know now.
Dante Dowdell’s first touchdown as a Kentucky Wildcat was a big one.
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— KSR (@KSRonX) August 30, 2025
Seth McGowan also impresses in Kentucky debut
Fellow transfer running back Seth McGowan also had some big moments in his debut, totaling a team-high 18 carries for 78 yards and a touchdown. Kentucky finished with 220 rushing yards, its most in a season opener since 2018 (299 vs. Central Michigan).
“They are both really complete backs,” Stoops said of Dowdell and McGowan in his conversation with Tom Leach. “We’ve talked about it; it’s good that in the first game, everybody had an opportunity to see them. We got some really tough, nasty yards when we needed to, we got the explosive play.”
Both McGowan and Dowdell sat out Kentucky’s scrimmages in fall camp; Stoops suggested that may have been a reason why it took the ground game a little time to get going today, noting some slips on the Kroger Field turf.
“I think both of them, both of those guys, need reps on our field as well. In the scrimmages, they were really limited. They both played a lot of football. They are running backs, and they are going to take a lot of hits throughout this year. I think the footwork and footing of our field, hopefully they will continue to improve and get more comfortable because they did slip a few times as well.”
Seth McGowan’s first touchdown as a Kentucky Wildcat
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— KSR (@KSRonX) August 30, 2025
Once Dowdell does get going, it’s hard to stop him, which Afari, who led Kentucky with 13 tackles, can attest to after facing him in practice.
“It’s very hard to tackle him. He’s like 6-2, 230 lbs., so you’ve got to really bring it on if you’re going to hit him. He’s definitely hard to tackle. He’s long past arm tackling. You can’t just arm tackle him. He’s going to run through that.”
Not even alligators are safe from Dowdell. His legend deepened when the SEC Network broadcast shared that he caught alligators as a kid growing up in Picayune, Mississippi.
“That’s something different,” Dowdell told Alyssa Lang when she brought up the fun fact in his postgame interview. “That’s something different. We were just fishing and caught a little alligator. If it was now, I probably would have killed it and ate it.”
Now I can’t wait to see what he does vs. Florida.
