Missouri's Martez Manuel hates Kentucky: "There's bad blood there"
Louisville, Tennessee, Florida… Missouri? All of Kentucky’s bitter rivals on the football field, especially the Tigers. Apparently.
If you ask Missouri defensive back Martez Manuel, at least.
In an appearance at SEC Media Days in Atlanta on Monday, the 6-foot senior made it very clear he is not a fan of the Kentucky football program. In fact, Manuel says he sees the Wildcats as a bigger rival than the Arkansas Razorbacks.
“Kentucky — and this is my personal opinion — I feel like it’s more of a rivalry game than Arkansas, personally,” he told Aaron Gershon of The Cats Pause. “Arkansas, yeah, it’s the Battle Line Rivalry, but we don’t have bad blood there. But we don’t like Kentucky, they don’t like us.”
It’s a deep-rooted feeling that came to fruition for Manuel back in high school. He remembers Kentucky’s last-second win over Missouri in 2018, a game-winning touchdown pass to CJ Conrad from Terry Wilson.
“It’s been that way since — I can remember I was a senior in high school and Kentucky played at Missouri, they won on like the last play of the game because of a PI call,” he said. “They had a timeless down, something stupid. We lost to them that next year, my freshman year, it was actually my first career start. That was pretty personal to me.”
It’s been bitter ever since.
“My sophomore year, we beat them at home, and that was amazing,” Manuel added. “Then obviously last year, we lost to them by seven or something crazy in the last minute after a blocked kick. I feel like that’s a game that’s forever — that needs to be our new rival, honestly. There’s actually bad blood there. With Arkansas, we want to win that game, but I don’t hate them personally. That’s just me speaking, I’ve got nothing against those guys.”
He doesn’t just dislike the Wildcats, he hates them.
“Kentucky, I hate that White and Blue, I’m not going to lie,” said Manuel.
Keep in mind, Kentucky has won six of its last seven head-to-head matchups with Missouri. Ten total tackles for Manuel in three games, two being losses.
Eli Drinkwitz on Kentucky, Mark Stoops
While Manuel was quick to express his hatred toward the Kentucky football program, Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz was complimentary.
“Well, first off, Coach Stoops does a tremendous job. Obviously knows exactly what the blueprint of his program is and how he wants to develop it,” he told KSR. “He’s had the benefit of some really strong defensive schemes and defensive players. Their defensive line is as impressive as anybody we play against, save for Georgia. So I think that’s part of it.
“I think offensively last year we were able to have — Tyler Badie really came on the scene, we had the ball in our hand, opportunity to go try to tie the game up, didn’t get it done on a fourth down right there.
“I have a lot of respect for Mark and that program, what he’s been able to do. It’s going to be another good game. We get ’em later in the year, this year, which has been the first time that we’ve done that. I think we’ve played ’em either week three or last year was week two. It will be interesting to see where our teams are at that point in the season.”
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