Vanderbilt @ Kentucky preview
Kroger Field
Last Meeting ( Nov 14, 2009 ) Kentucky 24, Vanderbilt 13
Things haven't gone quite as smoothly as first-year head coaches Joker Phillips of Kentucky and Robbie Caldwell of Vanderbilt might have hoped.
Both sit at 1-5 in the SEC and are scrambling to stay out of the Eastern Division cellar.
But Phillips and the Wildcats can salvage something Saturday as a win over the visiting Commodores would make them bowl-eligible for a school-record fifth consecutive season.
Kentucky (5-5, 1-5 SEC) earned bowl eligibility by beating Vanderbilt last season, and the Wildcats can do it again with a second consecutive victory Saturday. The Wildcats are coming off a 49-21 win against Charleston Southern in which they rolled up 502 yards of total offense.
After four straight losses, Vanderbilt (2-7, 1-5) has seen its hopes of getting to a bowl game fade quickly, eventually disappearing with last week's 55-14 home loss to Florida.
The Commodores have struggled on offense, in large part because they've been hit hard with injuries in the backfield. They lost leading rusher Warren Norman for the season when he suffered a wrist injury against Arkansas on Oct. 30, and his replacement, Zac Stacy, left last week's game with a concussion and could miss the rest of the season.
If the Commodores can't get something going on the ground against the Wildcats, they could be in trouble. Kentucky's pass defense ranks second in the SEC and 10th in the nation, allowing 165.4 yards per game.
Vanderbilt's offense ranks last in the SEC in scoring (17.8 points per game), total offense (267.0 yards per game) and passing (135.1 ypg) and 10th in rushing (131.9 ypg).
Things haven't gone much better on the other side of the ball for the Commodores. They are last in the conference in total defense (421.3 ypg) and rushing defense (180.1 ypg) and 10th in passing defense (241.2 ypg).
That could spell disaster against a balanced and potent Kentucky offense.
Quarterback Mike Hartline leads the SEC with 21 touchdown passes and ranks second in the conference with 267.4 passing yards per game. He has a pair of dangerous targets in Randall Cobb and Chris Matthews.
Cobb ranks first in the SEC and third in the nation in all-purpose yards (176.8 per game) and has been responsible for at least one rushing, receiving or passing touchdown in every game this season. He has had at least 100 receiving yards and a touchdown in the past two games.
The Wildcats hope to add more punch to their running game by getting leading rusher Derrick Locke (574 yards, 7 TDs) back this week after he missed four straight games with a shoulder stinger. Locke is also the No. 4 receiver with 24 catches for 225 yards.
One of the backs picking up the slack in Locke's absence, true freshman Raymond Sanders, also missed last week's game with an abdominal injury, so sophomores Donald Russell (110 yards, 2 TDs) and CoShik Williams (96 yards, 3 TDs) led the rushing attack last week.
The key for the Wildcats could be as simple as winning the turnover battle. In five wins this season, Kentucky is plus-6 in turnover margin, while it is minus-10 in its five losses.
Kentucky leads the all-time series 40-38-4 and has won five of the last six meetings, including a 24-13 win in Nashville last year.