Week nine has arrived in college football, and Kentucky (3-4, 1-4 SEC) is set to host Auburn (2-5, 0-4 SEC) inside Kroger Field.
Both teams enter the game off of losses, but the kinds of losses are very different.
For the Wildcats, they were blown out 48-20 on the road by Florida, whereas the Tigers fell 21-17 on the road to then No. 19 Missouri.
Looking at its overall record, Kentucky has defeated Southern Miss, Ohio and Ole Miss, but has been defeated by South Carolina, Georgia, Vanderbilt and Florida.
The Tigers have beaten Alabama A&M and New Mexico, but have fallen to California, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Georgia and Missouri.
Starting with the quarterbacks, Brock Vandagriff will be under center for the home Cats and he has thrown for 1,116 yards, six touchdowns and four interceptions. His yardage is good for 10th in the SEC.
Payton Thorne is just ahead of Vandagriff at seventh in the SEC with 1,414 passing yards. The Tigers’ starter has thrown 11 touchdowns and six interceptions.
The running back room for Kentucky is reeling a bit as both Demie Sumo-Karngbaye and DeaMonte “Chip” Trayanum are out with injury. With the injuries, it’s expected that Jamarion Wilcox will be the lead back. In just 32 attempts this year, he has accumulated 224 yards.
Auburn’s lead back is not in limbo as Jarquez Hunter is fifth in the SEC with 585 yards on the ground. Hunter has also found the end zone three times this year.
When it comes to wide receivers, Dane Key leads Kentucky with 500 receiving yards. That mark places him eighth in the conference. Key has found the end zone twice this season.
For the Tigers, KeAndre Lambert-Smith is ahead of Key at fifth in the SEC with 526 receiving yards. Lambert-Smith has hauled in six touchdowns on the year.
Looking at the teams as a whole, Kentucky’s offense is 15th in the SEC with 319.9 yards of offense per game. The Wildcats’ 20.4 points per game is last in the SEC.
Auburn ranks ninth in the SEC with 421.9 yards of offense per game, but its 28.1 points per game places 13th in the conference.
In terms of defense, the Wildcats are allowing 283.6 yards per game and are giving up 19.3 points per game, which ranks fourth and eighth in SEC respectively.
The visiting Tigers rank 12th in the SEC with their 339.9 yards allowed per game and their 20.9 points allowed per game is 10th in the conference.
In the all-time matchup, the Tigers have won the last three contests against the Wildcats and have a 27-6-1 advantage in the all-time series.
As for this contest, according to BETESPN, Kentucky is favored to win at home by 1.5 points. The ESPN matchup predictor gives the Wildcats a 51.3% to pull out the win.
With Auburn looking for its first conference win and Kentucky looking to get back on track, all that’s left is kickoff, which is scheduled for 7:45 ET on Saturday, Oct. 26. The game will air live on the SEC Network.
