One might say that senior defenders Danny Trevathan and Winston Guy have a higher "steak" in Kentucky's defense playing well.
Sure, they want to see Kentucky win games. Sure, it's all about the team, but they have other motivations.
They both want to fill their stomachs at the other's expense.
Trevathan and Guy, who each had double-digit tackles in Kentucky's 30-13 win over Ole Miss on Saturday, have a bet going this season.
Whoever has the most tackles at the end of the season will be buying the other one dinner.
And it's going to be a costly one.
"If I win, I'm going to dig in his pockets," said Guy, who had 10 tackles, including 2.5 for a loss. "I might go to Malone's and get me a steak or something. ... Prime rib or something like that."
At one point this season, Guy led the team in tackles, but Trevathan would have none of it.
It just made him work harder.
In each of the past two games, Trevathan tied his career high for tackles with 17. On Saturday, he also had his third straight game with an interception.
"Winston kind of made a little joke about having more talent than me and me buying him dinner, but it's not going to happen," said Trevathan, the Southeastern Conference leader in tackles this season (and its leader last season with 144). "I told him I'll let him catch up at first, but I'll show him what a true linebacker does."
Guy, a former Lexington Catholic star, is starting to worry that he might be in trouble. Trevathan now has 111 tackles to Guy's 94 with at least three games to play.
"If I lose, he's going to run up my (tab)," Guy said.
UK's defense had 11 tackles for loss, which is a season high.
Trevathan is a big reason for that success, Coach Joker Phillips said.
"He's unbelievable," the head coach said. "Danny's definitely the leader of this football team. Not only does he lead by the way he plays and by the way he prepares for the games, but now he's starting to lead vocally. That's definitely helped to bring some other people with him. ... Danny's trying to bring this whole team with him."
A confidence injection
Matt Roark has been the punch line of many jokes this season. The senior wide receiver was much criticized for his multitude of misses.
But in back-to-back games he's gotten more than 100 yards receiving and has become a big-time target for quarterback Max Smith.
Roark's head coach still couldn't help but take a playful jab at the wide receiver.
"How many did he catch today?" Phillips said looking down at the stat sheet in front of him when asked about Roark's 116-yard night.
"Seven?" Phillips said with a laugh. "He's dropped seven in a game before."
Wide receivers coach Tee Martin was proud of the senior. When asked what made Roark get better, Martin smiled.
"Perseverance and him just sticking to it and believing in himself," Martin said. "He could have easily lost confidence and said forget it. ... It was my job to inject confidence sometimes when he wasn't feeling so confident."
Injury report
Receiver E.J. Fields suffered a hip pointer early in the first quarter and left the game. ... Defensive tackle Donte Rumph, who injured his knee last week, hurt his ankle in the second half. ... Linebacker Ridge Wilson injured his shoulder and will be evaluated.
