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Missouri football: 5 things I want to see Saturday at Kentucky

Keith Farner

By Keith Farner

Published:

Missouri finds itself looking to bounce back after a shocking loss at Vanderbilt, and now the Tigers go back on the road at Kentucky, where things haven’t exactly been easy lately.

Despite Kentucky’s offensive struggles, Missouri is no doubt aware of the recent history. The Tigers have lost 4 consecutive games against Kentucky, including 2 in Lexington. Three of those 4 games were decided by 1 score, including last year’s 15-14 UK win on the game’s final play.

Here are 5 things I want to see Saturday at Kentucky:

1st-quarter emotions

The struggles against Vanderbilt were evident early in the game and it looked ominous even at 7-7. So there should be an idea early if Missouri can handle Kentucky’s Lynn Bowden offense.

Coach Barry Odom gave an interesting breakdown at his Tuesday press conference, and presumably with his players, about the power of experiences and the power of setbacks and failures. It seemed as if Odom looked to offer a psychological spark for his team to find motivation. Assistant coaches like Derek Dooley have volunteered for the blame at Vanderbilt, and players have come to Odom’s defense. Now it’s time to show if his message resonated.

This is a different type of season than Missouri’s had under Odom with the eye-opening losses to Wyoming and Vanderbilt, and solid wins over South Carolina and Ole Miss. The Tigers should take care of Kentucky, but will they?

Get Albert O. more involved

Odom admitted that TE Albert Okwuegbunam needs to make more plays consistently, but the offense “might need to force-feed him.” He only had 2 catches for 10 yards last week, though 1 was a TD.

Okwuegbunam recently has been arguably the best tight end in the SEC, but with games like that, he could slip behind Arkansas’ Cheyenne O’Grady and Florida’s Kyle Pitts. The week before, against Ole Miss, Albert O. had a season-high 4 catches for 60 yards, including a 36-yarder. Candidly, he should get at least 4 targets in the red zone each game.

Okwuegbunam has a 3.9 catch-to-touchdown ratio after he made his 23rd touchdown last week at Vanderbilt. He is now 2nd in Mizzou history with his 23 receiving TDs, 7 behind school-record holder Chase Coffman (30 from 2005-08).

Tucker McCann back on track

The seemingly reliable kicker has missed 3 of his past 7 field-goal attempts, including both tries at Vanderbilt. This came after he missed 2 extra point tries against Ole Miss.

“Mentally he’s in a good spot,” Odom said Tuesday. “He kicked well today. I think we’re alright.”

For perspective, McCann had a similar slump in 2016 as he missed a field goal against Kentucky and South Carolina. At the time, Odom said McCann would have a great career, which has happened, but, “we need it to happen now.” McCann also had a similar slump early in 2017. It’s time for another bounce back.

Jordan Elliott continues strong start

With the loss of Cale Garrett, Missouri needed a boost on defense and it’s gotten it from Jordan Elliott. Elliott leads the team with 7 tackles of loss, which is 8th in the SEC. He is grading out at 90.4 for the season, according to Pro Football Focus, 2nd-best on the team behind only LB Nick Bolton (90.9).

Elliott is coming off of a career-high 5-tackle performance at Vanderbilt. He has at least a half TFL in the last 6 games.

Continue defensive scores, game-changing plays

Mizzou has converted its past 13 interceptions into touchdowns, and that continued last week against Vanderbilt. Cameron Wilkins picked off his first career pass and rumbled 42 yards to the Vanderbilt 6-yard line. Larry Rountree III scored on the next play to keep the streak going.

The streak started with DeMarkus Acy’s pick just before half during last year’s Tennessee game, as he returned 76 yards to set up an offensive TD.

Since then, every interception has been converted into a TD by the Tigers’ offense or defense. The Tigers’ defense has returned 4 interceptions for TDs in that stretch (all this season, which leads the nation).

Keith Farner

A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.

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