Of Monsters and Men

Credit: usatoday30.usatoday.com A modern day David and Goliath story will unfold this weekend. As we look ahead to this Saturday night Kentucky fans want to know how Kentucky will win this weekend. Truth be told our chances are slim. However, the thing that Kentucky has going for them is Alabama is number one and Kentucky is at the bottom. For this game all of the pressure is on Alabama to crush the Cats. Everyone is predicting the Tide to step out on the field and win. Everything will automatically go right because it says Alabama across their chest. It only takes a couple of hits to knock out a giant, but the question stands who will do the hitting that will get them on the ropes? The first blow has to come from the quarterback position. The Jalen Whitlow factor has to be a major play for the Cats this weekend. While we saw flashes of greatness last weekend in the second half of the South Carolina game, he has to play a complete game against the Tide. The coaches are going all in for the rest of the season on Whitlow and it starts this week against the best team in the nation. Whitlow passed for 178 yards and rushed for 69 yards and a touchdown. It does not take an analyst from ESPN to realize that these kinds of numbers will not faze the boys from Alabama. Jalen has to come out and open the field up so that the draw play will be there later in the game. It is important to get Whitlow to complete some short passes and get his confidence up. While this is easier said than done the Cats have to do this to be successful. Next we need a lot more production out of the running back position as well. Jojo Kemp through the first four games was the explosive answer that we needed. However, last week against the Gamecocks, Kemp only rushed for 40 yards. While Carolina does have an above average run defense Alabama has a better one. The Cats will have to find a scheme that will take the large Alabama defensive line out of the equation, and will allow Jojo to get out in space and do what he does best. Jojo is not made to run in between the tackles, that’s Raymond Sanders’ job. The Kentucky run game has to be set up by Raymond Sanders running through the middle and let Jojo Kemp out in space. While the chances are not great to pull out a win this weekend, there is still a shot. You have to go play all of the games on your schedule because it only takes one mistake for a game to spiral out of control. The Cats have to go in with a never say never attitude and put a complete game together. Last week we saw something that we have never seen as Kentucky fans, and that is a second half performance. So often the past couple of seasons we have watched a first half team that could never finish a game. Last week was a new generation team that we as UofK fans should be excited about. Go Cats @camyoung_KSR