AoG Offensive Preview: Kentucky

Vanderbilt (0-5) travels to Lexington to play Kentucky (2-4) this Saturday. The Dores are a 17 point underdog.......(pours 4 fingers)........

Anywho, Kentucky is in a bit of a spot themselves right now in that they seemingly don’t know who they want to go at the quarterback position coming in to this week. Coming out of the bye, Mark Stoops has indicated that the QB who gives them the best chance to win will be their starter. The Wildcats began the season with Terry Wilson as their QB. Wilson, a senior, was the outright starter at the beginning of the season, but suffered a wrist injury that sidelined him against Georgia. The Wildcats then turned to Auburn transfer and sophomore Joey Gatewood. Gatewood only produced 15 of 25 for 91 yards against Georgia in a 14-3 loss. In addition, the Wildcats have a four-star recruit in Beau Allen on the roster. The question for Stoops is whether they stick with Wilson or they start to figure out what they have in Gatewood and Allen. Looks like we’ll have to wait until later in the week to see where we are there.

Kentucky has two running backs who get touches, but the primary back in the offense has been Chris Rodriguez. A junior, Rodriguez has 75 carries for 413 yards on the year, with 4 TDs and and average of 5.5 ypc. He is not much of a receiver out of the backfield. Asim Rose also will spell Rodriguez, but there is no doubt he is the primary back. Wilson at present, has been their number two running threat.

Kentucky has really struggled to find consistency at wide receiver. Senior Josh Ali has basically been the lone receiving threat, and no one else is even close to him. A major reason for Kentucky’s offensive woes is that they haven’t found a number two threat. Kentucky has a myriad of receivers who are either too young or misses, and they desperately need someone to step up in that area.

The Cats offense is (gasp) worse than Vanderbilt’s in yards per game. But this is a matchup of the two lowest ranked offenses in the SEC. The good news for Vanderbilt is that our young players learning a new system are the primary reason. For Kentucky, they seem to have some pieces that just aren’t fitting well together right now. This is good news for a Vanderbilt defense that is giving up 444 yards per game, and has several problems in the secondary right now. That being said, Vanderbilt gave up only 204 yards of offense to Clanga, with turnovers being the number one reason for the loss. The Wildcats aren’t going to scare anyone offensively this year, but if you’re spotting them 5 extra drives, that’s a different story.