Tennessee’s depth will beat Cats

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By Joshua Huff

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Have you “Hurd”?

With zero road wins this season, zero wins since the beginning of October and just one win against Tennessee since 1984, the task of defeating the Volunteers appears daunting for a UK football team desperate for a sixth win.

More daunting for the Cats is the trip into a hostile Neyland Stadium against a “rival” that has repeatedly thumped UK throughout the years.

The Cats have not been playing good team football at all during their current four-game losing streak. Having been run off the field in the past two weeks by Missouri and Georgia, UK needs to find that inner warrior if it wants to play in a bowl game in December.

That task will not be made any easier against a Volunteer team that is eerily similar to the Cats. However, Tennessee boasts a roster with depth at nearly every position, which has been a nagging issue for UK this season.

Five different receivers for the Volunteers have caught 20 or more passes this season as they have an abundance of young talent on the perimeter.

No better example of that young talent can be found than in freshman running back Jalen Hurd. He is drawing rave reviews from coaches who say he has talent beyond his years and the work ethic of a veteran back. Hurd leads a backfield that has three rushers who have rushed for over 200 yards. Hurd has 598 yards and two touchdowns this season and will probably pad his stats on Saturday against a terrible UK run defense after a 125-yard performance against South Carolina two weeks ago.

UK allowed Georgia freshman Nick Chubb to rush for 170 yards on Saturday and also gave up 198 yards and two touchdowns to Mississippi State running back Josh Robinson three weeks ago.

Tennessee is ranked near the bottom of the SEC in rushing yards and last in yards per attempt (3.4). However, the Volunteers’ stats will get better after Saturday.

The Edge — Tennessee

Undisciplined, Young and Shallow

The biggest issue against Georgia for UK was winning the individual battles, which means playing four quarters of disciplined football. With the lack of depth on defense at almost every position, that means players have to step up and become the playmakers that UK coach Mark Stoops recruited them to be.

For the most part, that hasn’t happened.

J.D. Harmon for instance was called out by Stoops this week for his selfish play that was hindering the progress of the special teams.

UK doesn’t have the depth or talent for players to decide to do their own thing. That has been on display during UK’s four-game losing streak. Be it running backs who don’t follow their blocks or receivers who run the wrong routes, the inexperience and youthfulness of this team has turned what was a promising 5-1 start to the season into yet another subpar UK football season.

With two challenging games remaining in the season, UK has placed itself on the outside looking in and with a trip down to Knoxville and then to Louisville looming, the path in may just be too hard to overcome.

The Edge —Tennessee

Prediction

In the larger aspect of things Tennessee’s victory over South Carolina doesn’t hold much weight, as everybody seems to be beating the Gamecocks. Yet don’t tell that to the Volunteers, who will be entering this game full of confidence in front of a raucous crowd in Neyland Stadium. UK has been playing with no confidence of late and if Tennessee jumps out to a fast start, look for the Volunteers to pull away.

UK’s road woes continue and it will fall once again to the Volunteers.

Tennessee 35, UK 28