After the initial College Football Playoff rankings released last night, according to the committee, we are now looking at the No. 6 Kentucky Wildcats taking on the No. 13 Tennessee Volunteers on Saturday night at Neyland Stadium. Both teams are coming off of a bye week and this football game has massive stakes on the line. We previewed Josh Heupel's offense and Jim Knowles' defense, now we will get into players that can make an impact on Saturday. We started with the defensive X factors, so let's take a look at the offense.
QB Kenny Minchey
Kenny Minchey has been unbelievable this season under Will Stein and Joe Sloan, he has thrown 14 touchdown passes to just one interception. When you watch the film, he plays the game unfazed with poise and complete command
of the offense. There aren't many quarterbacks in the country playing at the confidence level that Minchey is right now. Kentucky is undefeated on the road this season with their biggest road test up next, Minchey has completed 72% of his passes for 682 yards, seven touchdowns and zero interceptions in his three road starts.
HB CJ Baxter
CJ Baxter was dealing with minor injuries over the last two weeks, it caused him to miss the Oklahoma game and get just one carry against Vanderbilt before aggravating his shoulder. The bye week came at the perfect time for Baxter, and he has been the best back for the Wildcats this season. He really has just played in six games this season, and in those six games he has 88 carries for 487 yards and eight rushing touchdowns. Baxter averages 5.5 yards per carry and is a big key in keeping Kentucky's offense on schedule.
OT Lance Heard
Lance Heard transferred to Kentucky this offseason after spending two years at Tennessee, he is listed as a captain this week and you know this game means something extra to him. Heard has been worth whatever amount of money Kentucky gave him this offseason to solidify the left tackle spot, he has played his way into first round buzz of the NFL Draft. Kentucky needs to run behind Heard in this game and away from Tennessee's superstar defensive tackle Xavier Gilliam. Kentucky's offensive line have a massive task at hand but they have been the best offensive line in the conference this season in my opinion; I would not be surprised if Will Stein has a trick up his sleeve to try and get Heard the football in the red zone this week.
HB DeSean Bishop
We touched on this during our Tennessee offense preview, but DeSean Bishop is absolutely the engine of this offense with the inexperience at quarterback. Bishop ranks 6th among all FBS running backs with 957 total rushing yards, 119 rushing yards per game and 21 carries per game. He also ranks top ten in the country with 11 rushing touchdowns, and Bishop has had over 30 carries in three of the Vols last four games. Tennessee has to get Bishop going to find offensive success and it is up to Jay Bateman's defense to find answers on how to slow him down.
WR Mike Matthews
Wide receiver Mike Matthews leads Tennessee with 34 receptions, 528 receiving yards and three touchdowns on the season. Matthews is the explosive play threat in the passing game, averaging over 15 yards per reception. Matthews is the go-to target and Kentucky's secondary has to key in on his alignment every snap in this game. Tennessee needs to take more shots downfield to Matthews to generate explosives in the passing game, but Kentucky's defense has allowed just an 8.9% explosive play rate this season which ranks 4th in the SEC.
This article originally appeared on UK Wildcats Wire: No. 6 Kentucky at No. 13 Tennessee: Offensive x-factors
