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Kentucky could not contain Vanderbilt’s passing game last week but gets a break this week when it plays at Louisville Saturday.
Chris Bell, Louisville’s top receiver, suffered an injury in last week’s 38-6 loss at SMU and the possible NFL first-round draft pick will not play against Kentucky.
Bell is second in the ACC in receiving yards with 83.4 per game. He has 72 receptions for 917 yards and six touchdowns this season.
Louisville coach Jeff Brohm would not say if starting quarterback Miller Moss, who did not play last week, would be back and was also mum on the status of running backs Isaac Brown and Keyjuan Brown.
“Miller Moss, I would expect him to play and you have to prepare for that, but you have to prepare for (backup quarterback) Deuce (Adams) as well,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said. “Jeff has a lot of offense that he can go to and they are always hard to defend.
“I think they are really good in the pass game and they have a run game that can really hurt you. You have to be prepared for all of it. We have to be prepared for a big amount of offense. We have to be prepared for a good run game but you know they can throw the ball around and we have five guys that have been down in the secondary. There is no hiding that on tape.”
Stoops said playing young players with limited experience in the secondary presents problems that Vanderbilt exposed. Kentucky had eight defensive players out by the time the Vanderbilt game ended.
“They’re going to see a lot of things. It’s really impossible for us to create (in practice) all the different gadgets or trick plays or things of that nature. You just have to apply your rules, and when young kids see things for the first time, you know, sometimes it’s like, I wish I could see that again,” Stoops said.
Vanderbilt’s defense overwhelmed UK and didn’t give quarterback Cutter Boley many opportunities to make plays early in the game.
“Louisville is very aggressive, an in-your-face kind of defense that we have to be able to respond to and do a better job,” the UK coach said. “There are things systematically — I don’t care to get into — but we have handled all of that before.
“Sometimes, again, we have done it well and other times we haven’t. We have to make sure we put a good plan together and be able to execute, just much like I said on the defensive side.”
Vanderbilt totally took away UK’s run game for what Stoops said was a variety of reasons that Kentucky has to get fixed.
“They did a nice job of taking away some of the run and they took away the passes as well — the screens, the outlets — they blew them up on the outside and we didn’t block them very good on the perimeter, that is part of the run game. Then some long guys with some windows making it tough throws,” the UK coach said.
“On some of those decisions, some of those were gives and maybe didn’t read them properly. There are other ways systemically where maybe we can protect that better and get in bigger sets and block the edges better with blitzes and things of that nature, like we have done for a majority of the year. There is a combination.”
With both teams having numerous injured players not expected to play, the outcome could be decided by which team simply wants the win more.
“I think both sides are going to want it, I don’t think there is any question about that. It is still about the next guys up and making plays. During critical moments, critical situations during the game, who makes them?” Stoops said.
19 Responses
Clark Lea signs a multi year ext. with Vandy and they also get 5* QB commit and we have to probably suffer thru another yr of Stoops. Are you kidding me.
Whats crazy is if we would have fired Stoops at the end of last year we would have Jon Sumrall as our coach. He's the hottest name out of all the college coaches besides maybe Kiffin. If we would have fired Stoops after the Tennessee game or Texas game I think we still could have gotten Sumrall. He would have picked Kentucky over Auburn or Florida. Because the fans here are just happy to go to a bowl game. At Florida there is a ton of pressure the same way Auburn is. It's like Kentucky basketball win or go home. Florida doesn't even like 8-4 or 9-3 years. It's considered a failure. Here were happy with 8-9 wins. Sumrall would have taken the Kentucky job over any other job it just never became available .
The fans are definitely not satisfied just going to a bowl anymore. Stoops has gone to one 8 of the last 9 years. Maybe 9 of the last 10 after Saturday.
Cats have been to 23 bowls EVER. Stoops has 8. More than a third EVER.
It is just like what Calipari ran into…It's about what have you done for me lately. Stoops has run the train off the tracks.
Stoops is a dinosaur. Barnhart is committed to feeding the dinosaur. It's very expensive feeding the dinosaur.
Next year's football team's motto will be "Stuck with Stoops."
It looks like we are going to the Toilet Bowl again.
I don't care if they get a 6* QB. He will never be as good as Pavia is for them. Even 5* QBs usually take 2 years before they are ready. By the time the 5* QB gets to play Lea might be fired or in hot water. Even Vanderbilt gets lucky sometimes. I think Tennessee beats Vanderbilt tomorrow. The only hire I'm mad about is the Jon Sumrall hire. We could have had him. I guess now we will see how good of a coach he is in the SEC. Remember Sun Belt Billy even dominated the Sun Belt. SEC football you have to be able to recruit and be a great coach. The Sun Belt and the smaller schools being a good coach will get you by. In the SEC you can be the greatest coach ever but if you don't have the players your not going to win. If Sumrall goes to Auburn he wont last 3 years. I think he has a better chance of doing good at Florida over Auburn. Florida is going to get the recruits regardless. Auburn is his and miss. Stoops will be going heads up with Sumrall very soon. We will see who the better coach is.
I think this is going to be a close game. They are saying Moss will play. Like I've said all week if Moss plays I think it's a coin flip but we win by a touchdown or less. If Moss doesn't play or gets hurt more when they play us we will win by at least 2 touchdowns. What most people dont know is Louisville has a great defense. There defense was the reason for there 7-1 start not there offense so much. They will get some stops on us and they will probably sack Boley at least 2-3 times. A way that Louisville can win or keep the game close is if they win the turnover margin. Boley has 15 TDs and 10ints. So for every 2 TD passes he throws a int. Thats something he needs to clean up next year. Playing every possession like they need a touchdown to win. he should get at least 25 TD passes and less than 8 ints next year. Then improve on that every year. A young QB always throws a lot of ints so this was expected this year. Next year im expecting him to be the first QB to throw for 3,000 yards in the Stoops era.
Most of the media is picking Kentucky to win. It will be close, but I agree with Larry and see us losing by 3…because the game is at Louisville.
3 or 41 same dif
I dont have a clue, but if they shutdown the run like Vandy it’ll be a looooong day.
you were right paul. This game may never end
Injuries played a role in the outcome.
UL went deep in their RB stable and ran all over UK, and of course passed for big yardage.
0-41.
Will the AD give the HC & OC additional bonuses?
Just Lifetime contracts….and DC can take a hike also. Any coach, positional or otherwise, that can't get their team up for BIGGEST game of year needs to go.
LB…..how bad did injuries hurt UL. They were sans their top 4 RB's and 1 WR plus others? REGIME CHANGE NOW!!
Obviously UL knows how to have deep backups ready for game time. Can’t imagine how much worse the score could have been if UK was missing 4 RB’s and a WR instead of UL being short of its regular players!
Barnie & every administrator he should be accountable to – those heads all need to roll when the AD, HC, OL coach, Secondaey coach & othes are swept out of the state of Kentucky!
A REGIME CHANGE from Top (Capiluto) to the defensive secondary coach MUST GO if UK is going to purge the multi-rooted cause for UK FB to be an utter failure!
I knew he was going to say this after the game! "I'm going to go into the office in the morning and go to work."
What a joke!
Does the AD get a little “referral fee” from Stoops placed into a special Cayman Island account ? Stoops’ minion AD is the best agent a non-competent HC could ever find.
Just a “Wild” guess …
What do you think, WildWest?
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