Despite tailgating appearances, my first visit to Commonwealth Stadium in years and years and years was difficult:
The scoreboard numbers read Carolina 24, UK 17.
Every blue-clad member of a sun-drenched Commonwealth crowd of 70,822 knew what that score meant: make it Spurrier 16, Kentucky zero all-time.
Yet the really grim numbers for Kentucky were these: South Carolina converted on third down eight times in 17 attempts. UK's conversion rate on third downs was 1-for-16.
Believe it or not, Kentucky's performance on the most crucial down in any football game was actually worse than the dismal numbers indicate.
The whole game seemed worse than the numbers indicate. At least I had Lynagh's.