Kentucky and Eastern Michigan Should Give The Refs a Break

Mark Stoops pleads his case during Kentucky's loss to Ole Miss, via Mont Dawson, KSR

Being a college football official is a difficult job. The referees should take a stride on Easy Street during Kentucky’s tilt against Eastern Michigan.

“Clean” is probably not the way you would describe the Kentucky football team after watching the offensive operation against Ole Miss. But if you judge a team’s discipline based on how often their penalized, than Kentucky is a well-disciplined team.

The Wildcats are one of two SEC teams with fewer than ten penalties through two games. Kentucky has been flagged nine times, while Georgia has just five.

“We’ve been extremely smooth in many places, and others that we are falling short,” Mark Stoops said earlier this week. “With that operation, you feel like there’s a lot of little things because the couple penalties really stuck out to me. We are the second least penalized team in the SEC. It’s not like we’re shabby all over the place.”

Eastern Michigan has made plenty of mistakes during its first two losses of the season, but they have not manifested in turf laundry. Eastern Michigan did not commit a penalty in the loss to Long Island. It was just the second time since they started tracking penalties in 1995 that the Eagles were not flagged once during a football game. It was just the 29th time in the last 20 seasons that a MAC team did not commit a penalty in a game.

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There’s one other similar facet to the game that Eastern Michigan does well: The Eagles have yet to turn the ball over this season. They are one of 21 FBS teams that have not registered a turnover through two games.

Kentucky has picked off three passes in the young season, with Ty Bryant snagging two against Ole Miss. Something’s gotta give.

If trends hold, it should be a clean football game Saturday night at Kroger Field. That’s a big if. Expect the unexpected.

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