Kentucky preparing for tough matchup against ‘physical’ Mississippi State

Kentucky ended its 31-year losing streak against Florida earlier this season. Now, the Wildcats will look to end another tough stretch against another one of their SEC rivals.

This Saturday, Kentucky plays Mississippi State, which has won eight of the last nine meetings between the two schools. The No. 14 Bulldogs are the toughest team that the Wildcats have had to play so far this season.

Both Kentucky and Mississippi State have gotten off to 3-0 starts.

Here’s some of what Stoops said about the Bulldogs during his Monday press conference:

• On Mississippi State’s offense: “You put together a physical offensive line, a dynamic back and a big beast at quarterback, that’s a lot of good things. They’re big, they’re strong and they’re explosive. They just put a lot of pressure on you, the quarterback run game, when you have a guy like [Nick] Fitzgerald, who’s fast and also big and strong.”
• On Fitzgerald: “He’s physical. He makes plays when he has to. He’s talented with his arm. As always, when you play a team like this that’s not only physical at running the ball but they have a physical quarterback and they use quarterback runs, that makes you play with numbers. And then he’s talented enough, and their receiving corps and tight ends are talented enough, to hurt you throwing the ball. So it puts a lot of pressure on you.”
• On the Bulldogs’ physicality: “They’re as physical as anybody you’re going to play in this league, if not more. So you have to match it. It starts there, but again, there are a lot of other things that are going to go into it. But that’s a big piece of it.”
• On Mississippi State’s defense: “They’re very good defensively. As always, seems like when you talk about them, they’re very long, they’re big, they’re physical and they’re experienced. They have, I want to say, three seniors on their front who are very big and athletic and one junior. Then across the rest of their defense, a bunch of juniors, seniors and they sprinkle in a couple sophomores. They’re an experienced group and a big, physical group. Very active.”

Watch Stoops’ full press conference from Monday below:

Watch Now: @UKCoachStoops Pre-Mississippi State Press Conference https://t.co/1VZ7zYZeej

— Kentucky Football (@UKFootball) September 17, 2018

Jake Rill

Jake Rill contributes to news coverage for Saturday Down South. He has covered the SEC since 2016.