UK won’t be underdogs against Vanderbilt

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By Joshua Huff

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Vanderbilt football will make the trip to Commonwealth Stadium this Saturday to face a rested UK team that is coming off a bye week.

The Cats find themselves in an unusual situation as they head into the contest. For the first time in years, UK will not be playing the role of the underdog against a Southeastern Conference team.

UK head coach Mark Stoops said he doesn’t pay attention to that type of talk, but acknowledged that his team will head into the game hungry and ready to play.

“I think our team has played that way this year,” Stoops said on Monday. “We need to stay that way. It’s important to go out and get this victory. It’s the next game on the schedule, so it’s the most important one.”

The Cats spent their bye week healing up injuries and preparing for the Commodores, who enter the week coming off an impressive outing against South Carolina on Saturday. Despite losing to the Gamecocks 48-34, Vanderbilt played well against the No. 13 team in the nation and has improved drastically since its blowout losses to Temple and Ole Miss at the beginning of the season.

“I thought they played with great energy this past week,” Stoops said about Vanderbilt. “You could see the excitement. They played hard. They’re getting better and better, playing more confident.”

UK will have its hands full against a Stanford-style Commodore offense that has scored a combined 68 points in its last two contests.

“They do a lot of creative things with big sets,” Stoops said. “That was helpful for them against South Carolina. You could see they’re starting to build more and more into their package. They create some big problems from the run and pass with big sets.”

Stoops expects that Vanderbilt will enter the game showing off a few more creative formations, something that may cause fits for the Cats’ defense. But UK will spend the week working out the details of what Vanderbilt’s offense does.

Just don’t expect the Cats to be intimidated by any Commodore formation, because Stoops likes what he sees from his defense, specifically, their confidence.

“I think the players are getting more and more comfortable,” he said. “They’re getting more and more confident. I think the players are starting to understand things better and carry things over from week-to-week.”

What won’t carry over from the layoff will be UK’s injury situation. Players like Braylon Heard and Javess Blue are reportedly close to being 100 percent healthy thanks to the extra rest week.

Zach West, however, is still questionable with a neck injury that has plagued him the past few weeks.

“Zach is getting better,” Stoops said. “He’s improving.”

The Cats have the perfect opportunity to finally rid themselves of the 17-game SEC losing streak and also plans on coming into the game riding the momentum of a well-played 36-30 triple-overtime Florida loss two weeks ago.

“I felt like we were hungry,” Stoops said. “We better keep that same energy this week as we prepare for (Vanderbilt).”