The Leach Report: Alabama State

by:Tom Leach10/31/13

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TCB. Takin’ care of business. That’s the mission this week for the Kentucky football team. Fans won’t remember much about a Kentucky victory against Alabama State but they’ll always remember a loss. That means this Wildcat team must approach this game in a mature manner, not taking anything for granted. This team has shown great heart from day one but we all need a little positive reinforcement from time to time and a win would do wonders for this group right now. There are opportunities left for signature achievements, as long as the Cats take care of business this Saturday.

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KEY STORYLINES/MATCHUPS

Energy. The mood around the UK football camp this week was quite positive. Losing a game like Kentucky did at Mississippi State, on a big stage, could lead to a letdown, especially against an opponent the Cats are expected to beat. So it was good to hear Mark Stoops sound so upbeat and loose in his post-practice interviews this week, indicative of a coach who likes what he is seeing on the field and off.

Stop the run. Kentucky had arguably its best game of the season in controlling the opponent’s run game, given how well Miss State had been running the ball. The Cats must build on that this week, against an Alabama State team that features former Georgia star Isaiah Crowell in the backfield.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Every season, we see top teams in lower-division leagues jump up and surprise teams from bigger conferences that are struggling to get wins. Kentucky must respect its opponent and do something it hasn’t often done this season–start fast and keep ASU from gaining confidence by getting a lead.

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NUMBERS GAME

–Jalen Whitlow is completing 66 percent of his passes for the season, right about where a quarterback needs to be in Neal Brown’s system. However, when you break it out by downs, Whitlow is hitting 73 percent on first and second downs but only 47 percent on third. The numbers are similar for Maxwell Smith.

–Kentucky had not committed a turnover in the past three games. That’s happened several times over the years but research back as far as 1946 by the UK sports information staff shows UK has never had a stretch of four consecutive turnover-free games.

–Kentucky is averaging 4.95 yards per rush on first down runs. The only UK team I could find in the last 10 years that did better was the 2009 team that was one of the SEC’s best ground attacks that season. It indicates that the Cats have finally started to find something they can do well consistently and that should give them a chance to pull off a surprise or two in the final third of the season.

(stats courtesy of cfbstats.com)

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THIS WEEK IN BIG BLUE HISTORY

This week in 1991, Doug Pelfrey hit a school-record 53-yard field goal at the buzzer to beat Cincinnati, 20-17. Every week in college football, we see those kinds of game-winning kicks but as far as my quick research could tell, Kentucky has only had one of those in the past 22 years–Seth Hanson’s game-winner at the buzzer at LSU in ’98.

–listen to Tom each weekday morning at 9:06am eastern on “The Leach Report” radio network

–check out tomleachky.com for more of Tom’s coverage of the Cats and follow Tom on Twitter @tomleachky and via Facebook for “The Leach Report”

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