Saturday Predictions: Vanderbilt at Kentucky

Vanderbilt plays at Kentucky on Saturday at 11 AM. The weather forecast for Saturday in Lexington is 35 degrees, a wind chill of 28, and snow “likely.” This, for a game involving a Kentucky team that’s already kind of a bad offense. In other words, we have a high likelihood of Sickos Football. Get ready.

Tom Stephenson

Oh, this is going to be a very bad football game, and I am here for it.

The Pick: Kentucky 16, Vanderbilt 6

The SEC Upset Pick of the Week: It’s ARKANSAS (+3.5) over LSU. Like the Vanderbilt-Kentucky game, that will involve frigid weather conditions. Unlike the Vanderbilt-Kentucky game, it will involve a team that is definitely not accustomed to temperatures in the 30s.

Andrew VU ‘04

We’ve all agreed that we want the season to be over now, right? I mean, the only thing that has us coming back is habit, tradition, and the sinking feeling that our shooty hoops team may not be the beam of sunshine we need coming out of a sewage treatment facility malfunction of a feetball season (with an anti-semitic position coach for a kick of extra flavor).

On top of all of that, we have many players out this week with injury. Good, great, grand, wonderful...

Kentucky’s not as good as they were at the beginning of the year, but still... expect a modest thrashing.

The Pick: Kentucky 27 - Vanderbilt 13.

The SEC Upset Pick of the Week: Those Grode Jar Cultists of aTm are having a terrible year, but it could be argued the War Tigers are having an even worse one. It’s a coin-flip Cripple Fight of a game, so give me the one that gets points. aTm (+2) pulls off a squeaker in a game both teams try to give away time and again.

Patrick Sawyer

The weather is going to suck. AJ Swann is injured and definitely out. Will Levis is probably out for Kentucky. This should be a low-scoring, ugly affair. Kentucky’s offense sans Levis plays into Vanderbilt’s hands since the run defense has been good when they can focus on defending the run. The problem is how often extra bodies are committed to coverage, thus leaving huge gaps when surprised by a run. The defense may actually be able to defend the Kentucky passing attack without extra bodies if Kaiya Sheron is behind center for the Wildcats.

Mike Wright has been pretty rough throwing the ball since Elon, which really means he was just good through the air against Elon and Hawaii. Granted, ESPN credited Mike Wright with an 84.9 Total QBR after going 8/15 for 101 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT. That seems generous.

If the weather was not going to be in the low 40s with a windchill close to freezing, I would be clamoring for Seals. As it is, throwing the ball may be a mess. Wright has not had great ball security in bad weather though. So, yeah, I really do not feel confident in the Vanderbilt offense to do anything.

Probably an ugly, fairly close loss unless one team’s rushing attack just goes off. I would probably say Kentucky is more likely to do that than Vanderbilt.

The Pick: Vanderbilt 14, Kentucky 21

The SEC Upset Pick of the Week: Lane Kiffin turns the screws on Nick Saban by giving Alabama its third loss of the season. It doesn’t make sense since Ole Miss has not been great this season either, but it would be funny. None of the other upsets seem at all likely except maybe Arkansas over LSU.

Cole Sullivan

Everything is bad. With that said, I want us to win so badly. I am going to predict a tight, ugly win in an effort to speak it into existence. You know, have fun, expect to win.

The Pick: Vanderbilt 16 - Kentucky 1

The SEC Upset Pick of the Week: blah