The School: University of Kentucky
Record: 5-5 (2-5 in the SEC)
Ranking: SP+ has them at 43.
Mascot: The Wildcat (seriously, he has no “name”) and Scratch. The Wildcat is the one we all know. Scratch is a wide-headed
more silly looking wildcat that often has the jersey number “1/2” to be more kid friendly. Sure?
Location: Lexington, Kentucky
Coach: Mark Stoops. Stoops built Kentucky football from 2-10 (0-8) his first year in 2013 to 10-3 (5-3) twice in 2018 and 2021, but has declined with consecutive 7-6 (3-5) seasons in 2022 and 2023 then 4-8 (1-7) and not looking much better this season. The marriage seems very unhappy, but Kentucky is not interested in paying his buyout while Stoops likely cannot find a better landing spot.
Conference: The S-E-C. A real member since the start.
All-time vs. Vanderbilt: 48-44-4
In the Last 10 Years vs. Vanderbilt: 6-3. The 2021 Kentucky win was vacated thanks to a continuation of the longstanding tradition at Kentucky of providing athletes with “jobs” where they never work but get paid.
In the Last 5 Years vs. Vanderbilt: 2-2. See above about 2021.
The Last Time We Saw These Guys: Vanderbilt battled its way to an ugly 20-13 win over Kentucky the week after the Commodores shocked the world by beating then-#1 Alabama. We would later learn that Diego Pavia suffered a torn hamstring in the game, which hampered him the rest of the season.
At halftime, Vanderbilt led 14-7 with each team having turned the ball over in plus territory on consecutive possessions in the 2nd quarter. The Commodores got to their winning margin by sandwiching 49- and 50-yard Brock Taylor FGs around a 4th down interception of punter/holder Wilson Berry after he bobbled a FG attempt snap at the Vanderbilt 5.
Kentucky did get a TD to pull within 1 score, but they went for 2 or had another bad snap that left it a 7-point game. The play does not immediately spring to mind, and the internet bears no mention or video that I could find of the moment without pulling up a full game replay.
Is Vandy Favored?: Yes! This is becoming unsettingly common. The spread is 9.5 points at the time of writing.
Most Potent Offensive Threat: Cutter Boley. I wanted to say Seth McGowan since the RB is averaging 4.5 yards, with a season long of only 20 yards, over 153 carries. Boley is the real danger for Vanderbilt’s defense. The Redshirt Freshman QB has been a bit erratic, but he can be dangerous when he is on. In the OT loss to Texas, he was 31 of 39 through the air for 258 yards. Against Tennessee, he was 26 of 35 for 330 yards. Auburn and Florida both held him in check though. Still, Vanderbilt’s defense has let QBs get into rhythm in recent games then struggled to slow them down. Boley is capable of getting on a roll and being a real problem.
Most Potent Defensive Threat: Ty Bryant. Bryant is Kentucky’s strong safety. He leads the team in tackles at 56. For solo tackles, he is second to CB JQ Hardaway, who has 35, at 33. Bryant is also first in interceptions at 3. Pavia should be aware of him lurking.
Matchup to Watch: Vanderbilt’s coverage versus giving up easy completions. I have made my feelings about the coverage decisions over the last 2.5 games pretty loud. Basically since Beau Pribula went down, Vanderbilt has decided to go super conservative in coverage and proceeded to get torched by Matt Zollers, Arch Manning (with like 40% of completions behind the LOS), and Ashton Daniels. The Commodores do not have an elite pass defense. They are being put into horrible positions by schemes and play calls that have them bailing out from the line of scrimmage in “safe” zone coverages that lead to death by a thousand papercuts.
Clark Lea and Steve Gregory need to show some guts and let the defense step up instead of playing scared. They put the clamps on Texas for a quarter and a half when they did play more aggressively. They shut Missouri down when Pribula, the starter, was in the game by doing it. Letting Boley get comfortable with early success could be a season-derailing failure.
Interesting Fact: Paul “Bear” Bryant was the head coach at Kentucky from 1946 to 1953. He lost the Orange Bowl in 1949 to end a 9-3 season at #11 in the AP poll then followed with Sugar and Cotton Bowl wins. The Sugar Bowl crown left UK at #7 in both the AP and Coaches’ polls at the end of an 11-1 campaign. He was 60-23-5 (22-18-) in his 8 seasons at the helm of the Wildcats. He left because he felt like Adolph Rupp’s basketball program would always take precedence over football. He was right … but what if? Could he have made Kentucky a dual power?
If Kentucky wins, we: get ready for the Music City Bowl and an off-season of “what if?” The bye week already did not go Vanderbilt’s way with Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Oregon, BYU, Utah, and basically every other “worst case scenario” option winning except Texas. The AP has Vanderbilt at 12, and there is still a path to the CFP if the CFP Committee agrees with the AP. It just looks a bit bleak. Still, the Commodores need to win out first to consider any of that, so losing to Kentucky would put all of the “what if” questions after the season squarely on their shoulders.
