Kentucky hits the road this week, traveling to bustling Tuscaloosa, Alabama! The Wildcats will enter Bryant Denny Stadium as one of the hottest teams in college football. The Cats have won two straight contests while outscoring their opponents 44-17 over the last six quarters! Last week, UK played tremendous football in the 2nd half, outscoring South Carolina 14-3. Meanwhile, the mighty Tide limped home against woeful Kent State, scoring just seven points after the half. Clearly, Kentucky enters the weekend as the hotter football team! Not only is UK obviously playing at a higher level, but Alabama OWES UK. No, they don’t owe us another *** whipping! They owe us because we were stupid enough to let Bear Bryant leave UK (left for A&M actually). It’s only fair that they either give us Nick Saban OR this weekend’s game! Most people won’t give UK a chance on Saturday, but I think that’s a mistake. If you take away the pass right before halftime against Southern Miss, the entire 2nd half against Southern Miss, and the first 57 minutes of the Florida game, Kentucky would be undefeated. Yeah, they’re THAT close to being 4-0 right now! Meanwhile, Alabama allowed 43 points at Ole Miss and nearly lost the 2nd half to Kent. Honestly, this might be a mismatch in UK’s favor.
Series: Kentucky leads 2-0-1 in games not won by Alabama
Line: Kentucky +34
Television/Game Time: ESPN, because the entire world loves UK football (7pm eastern)
Kentucky offense vs. Alabama defense: Advantage Kentucky
It might seem strange to give UK the edge in this matchup, but not when you put almost no thought into it. Alabama’s defensive line is massive, but they get tired fast. That isn’t my opinion. That’s what Saint Nick has said about them. And once the tank runs empty, it takes about 96 hours to refill it. Against UK’s offensive line, I’m guessing Alabama’s DL spends the first two hours of the game pretty much running free. That has to wear them down, right? Once that happens, look out! Bennie Snell looks like the next coming of Bo Jackson….5 touchdowns in two games against teams that allegedly had a defense! Boom Williams looks a lot like Eric Dickerson at this point. Boom averaged over 8 yards per carry against SC. He’ll probably double that this weekend. Of course, UK will need something from the passing game. Stephen Johnson has looked tremendous!!!!! Johnson owned Florida, outscoring the Gators 7-0 in the games final few seconds! Over the last two weeks, his offense has put up 79 points! Assuming he survives those first two hours I talked about earlier, he’s in for a BIG evening! Talent might be an issue for Alabama as well. Looking at the preseason All-SEC coaches 1st, 2nd, and 3rd teams, only six Alabama defensive players were voted on. That means five must suck! It’s imperative that Eddie Gran develops a gameplan that attacks those five scrubs!
Kentucky defense vs. Alabama offense: Advantage Kentucky
Lee Corso can kiss my ***! Worst defense in college football history huh? The Cats went out last week and kicked South Carolina square in the nuts! UK linebackers other than Jordan Jones actually tackled people! Denzil Ware looked like the Ware from Denver (minus the broken arm of course)! Overall,the Cats went from zero sacks on the season to FOUR! That means we could be looking at EIGHT sacks against Alabama. UK’s defense is clearly improving at warp speed! While the Cats “D” is starting to flourish, the ‘Bama offense appears to be in chaos. In their last two quarters of action (and that’s all I intend to focus on for the rest of this “analysis”), the Tide looked more like Dick Trickle! How do you only score seven points in two quarters against Kent? Seriously??? Alabama’s sudden demise on offense combined with Kentucky’s resurgence on defense gives UK an obvious edge! Another factor could be the injury to stud RB Damien Harris! With Harris likely out, Alabama is probably down to just 4-5 five star running backs. When is the last time Saban had to get through a league opponent with such little talent at his disposal? To me, this looks like crisis time in Tuscaloosa!
Special Teams: Advantage Kentucky
If the last four years have taught me anything, it’s this. UK’s special teams are truly special! There isn’t a unit quite like ours anywhere else in the country! Did anyone else see the confused look on coaches from Vanderbilt when UK called timeout before a 4th down punt? Or how about the confused looks on Mississippi State’s coaches as we called timeout right before drilling a long field goal? Or how about the time UK sent about five guys out to return a punt against Auburn? That type of unpredictability is going to pay off. Eventually. Maybe. Hopefully.
Alabama will win if…hell freezes over. I just don’t see it. With Damien Harris likely out and Alabama’s program in crisis mode following the 2nd half performance vs. Kent, asking them to beat one of the hottest teams in the country is probably asking a little too much. After all, it isn’t like ‘Bama has 85 4-5 star players. They only have about 75 or so, and like I said, Harris is hurt!
Kentucky will win if…the bus finds its way to the stadium. Like I said earlier, if you put no thought into this matchup, anything can happen. Seriously! I just don’t see how Alabama’s DL survives two hours of sprinting! Big guys don’t like to run that much, and they’ll probably go through UK’s OL like a knife through melted butter. I say they’re exhausted by mid-2nd Q. On defense, can ‘Bama contain an offense that’s averaged 40 PPG since Heisman contender Stephen Johnson started playing? Doubtful!
Prediction: Alabama 55 Kentucky 7…It’s gonna be ugly folks!
Previous Picks (3-1 S/U, 2-2 ATS)
UK 31 Southern Miss 27
Florida 23 UK 10
UK 48 New Mexico State 13
UK 31 South Carolina 26
GBB!!!
