As Kentucky football bandwagon fills, 'Rat Poison' becomes Wildcats' most dangerous opponent
Entry No. 372 of new things Kentucky football fans have had to deal with in 2018 watching their team suddenly become the sexy bandwagon pick in the SEC East.
Yes, that’s right. After Georgia’s implosion to LSU and Florida’s ugly start against Vanderbilt, many across the college football landscape are looking to Lexington for the SEC’s East Division champion.
“I’m picking @UKFootball to win the SEC East now … The Kentucky Wildcats will be in Atlanta.”
– @PeterBurnsESPN #SECThisMorning pic.twitter.com/a0JoWvj195
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) October 15, 2018
For a program that has seemingly spent Mark Stoops’ six seasons getting in position to, er, get in position, a funny thing has happened. Kentucky is now officially set to drop a bomb on the preseason expectations of the college football establishment. But in order to reach that much anticipated Nov. 3 showdown at home against Georgia, Kentucky has three opponents it has to beat: 1) Vanderbilt, 2) Missouri, 3) “Rat Poison.”
No, that third item is not an unflattering nickname for the Louisville football program, although it might end up fitting well in that context too. “Rat poison” is how Nick Saban describes media hype. If it doesn’t ring a bell, check the video.
As an 11-point favorite this Saturday against Vanderbilt, the Wildcats will have to “endure” (as Saban might see it) a week of listening to how good they are, how talented they are, and how their game with Georgia on Nov. 3 will define the East race. For a success-starved Big Blue Nation football fan base, it’s like a week of pigging out on the fruits of victory. But for the Wildcats, Stoops and company will have to remain vigilant that those fruits don’t end up being rat poison.
Sure, while Kentucky sat at home and healed up during Week 7, Georgia took a brutal loss. Louisville also fell to 2-5. November foe Middle Tennessee fell to 3-3 with a Conference USA loss.
But meanwhile, Missouri showed sparks of a tough defense and a capable offense against Alabama. Tennessee resurrected with a 30-24 win over Auburn. And Vandy, lowly, humble Vanderbilt did play a quarter and a half of near perfect football to jump to a 21-3 lead over Florida. Sure, the Dores eventually lost, but if Kentucky is not wary of Vandy and rat poison, they could find themselves in a similar hole.
Vanderbilt is capable. They hung with Notre Dame for four quarters. They put a nice scare into the Gators on Saturday. While Kentucky is good, while Kentucky is talented, the Wildcats have struggled enough in the passing game to know better than taking any victory, even a fairly likely one, for granted.
Many times in recent Kentucky football history, a promising first half of the season gave way to a less-than-stellar back half. Think of 2007, when a top 10 ranking and a 5-1 start ended up with a 7-5 conclusion. Think of 2014 and 2015, when big starts against weaker competition (5-1 in 2014, 4-1 in 2015) ended up with late slides short of bowl appearances.
Granted, there are plenty of reasons to see this Kentucky team differently. Neither Peter Burns nor Barrett Sallee are stretching to find reasons to think the Wildcats could win the East. Benny Snell would find a way to turn credit into a slight and will keep a sizable chip on his Heisman-contending shoulders. A relatively healthy Kentucky team with a hard-charging defense will have a puncher’s chance against Georgia, and that game could indeed end up defining the fight for the East.
But before that game, Kentucky has to get by Missouri. It has to get by Vanderbilt. And perhaps most of all for this week, it has to get past rat poison.
Vanderbilt being a night game helps, with a sizable post-Keeneland crowd. Mizzou shouldn’t be overlooked by the team because it’s so obviously crucial. Let’s hope anyways.
The biggest trap/trip up I think is playing at UT after Georgia, win or lose.
Absolutely agree with you on Tennessee. I don’t see us overlooking Mizzou because it’s a road game, I think it’s a lot harder to have a trap game on the road. Vandy seems to have the most ridiculously weird home field advantage in the SEC… not the fans, but the time of day. Everyone goes into Vandy for those 11 AM local kicks and looks asleep for the first half… the night game at home makes me feel a lot better about that one. Our freebie from Georgia’s loss (as long as they beat UF) is most beneficial for the UT game I think. The Vols would love nothing more than to catch us off guard and pull the East title out from under our feet if we were to beat Georgia the week before.
I have not predicted many games this season for obvious reasons. On an earlier post I went out on a limb and predicted the vols will beat the cats at home. Maybe it was effects of wine and beer from a lot of hours watching football Saturday (football is a lot more fun to watch after a win). Regardless I will stick with it. You guys have had a nice long run on us but I just think we are over it and will play that way. Good luck against everyone else, especially the dawgs!
If FL can pull a win and beat GA, its hard for me to see GA dropping three in a row. IF GA beats FL, I think UK has a better shot.
I tend to agree with this, unless Georgia loses 2 in a row and runs out of gas realizing they’re out of a title race.
Either way, Florida is definitely getting their best shot after taking an L
I thought Kentucky lost to A&M.
Had a total of 178 offensive yards.
But, sure, we can win the EAST, beat Alabama, and win the national championship.
Why not?
Hey, saw your team won a conference game for the first time in 2 years. Congrats.
I really like this comment.
You all are mistaken, Paris is a Louisville fan. They’re not winning sh*t anytime soon.
Wow that’s even worse.
The biggest game on the schedule right now for the Cats is the one right in front of them, Vandy. I’m hoping to see two things this Saturday night: 1) The Cats come out focused (especially on the defensive side of the ball) and take care of business for all four quarters. 2) Stoops and Gran give Hoak another look. No, I’m not saying give up on Wilson but it is no secret to anyone how poor UK’s passing gave has been over the first half of the season. If the Cats just had an average passing game then I believe they would be 6 & 0.
That’s just my take… Hoak haters… go ahead and let me have it.
The problem is, you’re disregarding Wilson, who got us those 5 wins. Hoak is a great kid, but he’s no heisman. He is also slow.
The thing that makes Kentucky’s run game so dangerous is that Benny and Rose are excellent backs that keep going after contact and Wilson runs a 4.4 40….so if he has an opening he can literally get 10 yards in just over a second, so the safety has to play spotter.
The problem with A&M was 2 things. 1) We went away from our run game even though we were getting gains and winning on 3rd/4th and short. 2) We went all in on the pass with Wilson. There were a TON of opportunists where he had easy 5 or 6 yard runs that he normally took, but didn’t in the A&M game. Makes me believe the coaches told him to focus on pass and it took away one of our biggest offensive threats.
I hope your not saying Wilson was the primary offensive factor in the UK’s first five wins. He was extremely instrumental in those wins, especially the Florida win, but I would say the primary offensive factor was Snell.
As for Hoak, no he isn’t a heisman candidate and from a passing prospective he doesn’t need to be one nor does Wilson. Whoever is playing QB just needs to be more effective in the passing game than what we’ve seen through the first six games. That said, other than UGA and possibly Missouri I’m wondering if any other team on the schedule can stop the Cat’s running game as effectively as A&M. If they can’t stop the Cat’s running game then UK should be able to finish the season with at least four more wins even with a poor passing game.
Just for fun I pulled some offensive numbers for the four SEC games. You might have a point on moving away from the running game but there is no way you can say ‘we went all in on the pass with Wilson’ because the Cats had the same number of passing attempts in the A&M game (13) as the SC (13) game and only two more than the Florida game (11).
Not saying he’s the primary factor per se, but if you take him out and put a slow QB in, those other teams are dropping that safety and probably a DB back into coverage making the passing game even tougher, because you lose the threat of the running QB. A very fast running QB.
I’m not concerned about Missouri and UGA’s run defense nearly as much as I was about A&M and Miss St. Like I said, A&M wasn’t even that bad. We were gaining yards and were successful on 3rd/4th and short situations. We just didnt run the ball. Missouri’s run defense isn’t good, people just tend to pass it because their pass defense is so bad and Georgia just gave up 275 yards rushing to LSU. If we stick to our guns, I have full faith in our now healed OLine to make a big dent.
If you look at the numbers of those games, UK had significantly more rushing attempts as well. A&M game was low possession game for UK. Our poor defense was on the field forever.
Vanderbilt is a trap game
Eh. We’ve been prepping them for 2 weeks. It’s more so a trap game for Vandy coming off a disappointing loss at home to Florida.
Ah, my followers are out
Thanks for the comments.
It’s so nice to here from you.
sorry, ‘hear’ from you.
the other here is for those of you who don’t know the difference.
So, who has the most screen names on here?
I’m a little disappointed you didn’t mention the ‘baby seals’ on next year’s schedule and our version of Stoops. Must have been an off-day.