The CATS look to get Second win to open season.
LEXINGTON – September 6, 2019 – Bradley Charles – BSN
On Saturday, the Kentucky Wildcats will host the Eastern Michigan Eagles. Just like last week, Kentucky is going up against a sneaky good team from the Mid-American Conference. Despite this, ESPN’s Football Power Index gives Kentucky a 92.3% chance of winning the game.
Kentucky is 1-0 coming off a 38-24 victory in a home game
against the Toledo Rockets. The Cats only attempted seven passes in the first
half, and went into halftime tied 14-14; however, in the second half Kentucky
opened up the offense, going 14 for 19 through the air for 190 yards and two
touchdowns.
Kentucky played well on both sides of the ball against the
Rockets. Offensively, Terry Wilson passed for 246 yards and two touchdowns
while going 19 for 26. Entering last week, the receiving corps was largely
unknown with the exception of Lynn Bowden. However, Wilson was able to spread
the ball to a variety of playmakers as eight different players recorded a
reception. Among those eight was Ahmad Wagner who had three catches for 57
yards. Wagner who is 6’5” 234lbs, poses a big target for Wilson and a big
problem for defenses. With other wide receivers playing well besides Bowden and
Wagner, for the first time in a long time, the Cats seem to have no concerns at
wide receiver.
On Monday, Mark Stoops had this to say about the play of his
offensive line, “I thought they did some really good things, there’s obviously
some things that we need to clean up.” Stoops went on to talk about the running
backs as well, “I thought the running backs did some really good things, but
they missed several runs as well. … It’s nothing that can’t be fixed.”
Stoops gave similar responses to questions about the
defense, but this quote from Stoops was essentially the theme of Monday’s press
conference: “After watching the film, I’m very encouraged because I thought
there’s a lot of things we did well and a lot of mistakes we made, but the
mistakes can be corrected so that’s encouraging.”
As for Kentucky’s opponent on Saturday, Eastern Michigan
started their season last week in a road game against the Coastal Carolina
Trojans. The Eagles owned the third quarter, 16-0, and were able to obtain a
30-23 victory. Eastern Michigan quarterback Mike Glass III played particularly
well as he went 20 for 22 with 188 passing yards, three passing touchdowns, and
one rushing touchdown. Glass’ QBR against the Trojans was 91.4.
At his press conference this week, Coach Stoops had only
positive things to say about Eastern Michigan, “They’re another good football
team from the MAC, very well coached, and very similar in that way. Eastern
beat Toledo a year ago. We know Toledo was a good team.” Coach Stoops went on to
mention the game in 2017 against Eastern Michigan where the Cats won by only
four points, as well as the importance of his team getting back to work.
Eastern Michigan’s most impressive win last season came on
the road against Purdue. The Eagles were able to defeat the Boilermakers 20-19
in the second game of the season for both teams. Purdue finished the year 6-7,
but they did defeat Ohio State at home 49-20. The point here being, while the
Cats are heavy favorites going into Saturday’s game, they still have to go earn
the victory. You can’t just assume a victory. If you don’t believe me, ask
Tennessee.
Game time is Saturday night at 7:30. The game will air on an SEC Network alternate channel. BSN will provide full coverage of the game with coverage of the Cat Walk, in-game updates, post game articles, and plenty of pictures from the game. BSN coverage team of Brendon Miller, Ty Back and Bradley Charles.
