The Kentucky Wildcats travels south about 3 hours down I-75 to renew their annual rivalry with the Tennessee Volunteers. Kentucky is ranked 19th, Tennessee is ranked 3rd, so how can Kentucky pull off the upset? I’ll give 3 keys to victory for the Kentucky Wildcats, and we’ll see if they can pull it off Saturday night on ESPN.
1. RUN THE BALL!!
Chris Rodriguez Jr was the top returning rusher in the SEC this year, he had to serve a suspension early this season, but seems to have hit his stride as of late, fresh off a 197-yard 2 touchdown performance against the Mississippi State Bulldogs 2 weeks ago the Kentucky Wildcats need to lean on him again in Knoxville and keep that high powered Tennessee offense on the sideline to have any chance to succeed. JuTahn McClain has started coming on as of late, after dealing with an injury early in the season he was able to come up with clutch plays to help the Kentucky Wildcats salt away a victory at home. offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello is improving week to week as well drawing up some nice plays to use all of his offensive weapons.
2. Play sound defense
Other than a bad 2nd half against the South Carolina gamecocks, the Kentucky Wildcats have played good defense. They held the Mississippi State offense in check a couple weeks ago, holding Will Rogers to 203 yards with 1 touchdown & 1 interception. The bulldogs run a similar offense to Tennessee getting the ball out of the quarterback’s hands quickly & into playmakers hands. The key to shutting that down is sound tackling the Kentucky Wildcats were able to do 2 weeks ago & look to continue this week which is no easy task taking on Heisman hopeful Hendon Hooker & the Volunteers offense. Luckily the Kentucky Wildcats had a bye week to give Brad White and Mark Stoops an extra week to heal up some & come up with a gameplan to slow them down.
3. Win the turnover battle
Another tall task here taking on Hooker who has thrown only 1 Interception this season vs 18 touchdowns, but he has had 4 fumbles, so if the defensive line can get home they need to be swiping at the ball. Kentucky has the 14th ranked defense heading into Saturday’s showdown. Allowing less than 300 yards per game and averaging around 17 points per game allowed. The Kentucky Wildcats pride themselves on veteran leadership defensively, boasting several multi-year players. Will Levis, for all the much-deserved love he’s gotten this season has shown some issues with holding onto the ball and seems to have 1 interception a game where he just trusts his arm a little too much, he needs to not let that happen, because as I mentioned earlier the other quarterback in this matchup doesn’t turn the ball over much.