In a season opener like no other, Auburn is not the only test Kentucky faces
It’s gonna be a weird season in the Southeastern Conference, and for Kentucky it starts in Auburn, Ala.
That fact in any normal year would be the biggest anomaly heading into a UK season opener. The Wildcats haven’t started their season against an SEC opponent since 1960, and hasn’t beaten an SEC opponent in a season kickoff since 1946. In a game that’ll be packed with quirks incomparable to past seasons, it’s somewhat comforting that decades-old history is at stake.
So, just what will Kentucky be dealing with when it travels southward this weekend?
Test, test, test
Before UK even thinks about leaving for Auburn, it will have to pass one final round of rapid COVID-19 testing.
Players and staff are subject to three tests per week, per SEC guidelines, including a Friday test prior to game day. Teams can travel with up to 70 players, but UK head coach Mark Stoops says he’s getting anywhere from 80 to 82 ready to go in the event of positive results and/or contact tracing limiting those who can go to games. After those Friday tests?
“We’ll be in as much of a bubble as we can be in from the time we leave here until the time we play and come home,” Stoops said.
The new normal keeps on giving.
High case rates
Alabama as of Tuesday had 146,584 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Its positivity rate of 2.9 percent (per 100,000 people) is the fourth highest in the nation, behind Louisiana, Florida and Mississippi. Kentucky’s positivity rate (1.4) ranks 36th among all U.S. states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.
Lee County, the county in which Auburn resides, has had 5,765 confirmed cases and a positivity rate of 3.5 percent, per data from John Hopkins University. Fayette County-Lexington has had a similar number of confirmed cases — 5,688 — but its positivity rate is almost cut in half at 1.7 percent.
Alabama’s percentage of positive tests (an average over the last seven days) as of Wednesday was at 13.99 percent, putting it near the threshold of 15 percent that calls for a 14-day self-quarantine, as suggested by the Kentucky state government. Arkansas (20.74%) is currently the only state within the SEC footprint that hits that mark, though Florida (11.66%) and Missouri (11.59%) are in the double digits in addition to Alabama.
Team situations
One positive: Auburn dealt with high case numbers and limited bodies throughout camp but was expected to be at full strength ahead of Tuesday’s practice.
Kentucky, on the other end, had a small setback prior to the end of fall camp involving one position group specifically. Stoops didn’t share specifically which group it was, but context clues point to it having been UK’s safeties. The secondary is an area in which Kentucky could better afford losing players than others, but ideally that’ll be cleared up by kickoff.
Reduced crowd, but loud?
Stadium capacities league-wide are reduced to about 20-30 percent of their normal capacity this season. At Auburn, which normally accommodates more than 87,000 fans, about 17,500 will be permitted to attend.
A wrinkle, though: most of them will be students (about 13,000, according to Auburn spokesperson Kirk Sampson). Teams also are allowed to pipe in artificial crowd noise until the quarterback is under center.
“The fact that the majority of our fans are going to be students and our student section is always one of the best, if not the best in the country, I know they’re going to have their A-game and they’ll be loud as possible to help us win,” Tigers Coach Gus Malzahn said during a Tuesday news conference. “So that along with getting the crowd noise piped in, I think it’s going to be a good atmosphere that’s pretty loud.”
Unrest
Advocacy against racism, social injustice and police brutality has become commonplace across sports and within UK athletics.
The football team marched downtown in support of Black Lives Matter during the summer and later in fall camp conducted a unified walk-out of practice to reinforce its human-rights message. Stoops this week said the team has not discussed any sort of pregame messaging.
“The things we’ve done we are proud of,” Stoops said.
The Jefferson County grand jury on Wednesday announced charges in the investigation of the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, a Louisville woman who’s one of the central figures at the core of this year’s Black Lives Matter protests. Three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment against former Louisville detective Brett Hankison were the only indictments issued by the jury; Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron later said that there was disputable evidence absolving two other officers involved in the case.
With that verdict being so close to home, it’s possible that UK’s football team will choose to address it in some manner in the lead-up to or during the game. It will not, however, occur during the national anthem; SEC teams for some time have not been on the field for the anthem.
Underdog
One thing that isn’t unusual around these parts: Kentucky will go to Auburn marked as an underdog.
Most sports books peg the Tigers as a 7.5-point favorite over the Wildcats, who can be bet on most sites for a 2-1 return on the money line. The No. 8 Tigers have history on their side; they’re 26-6-1 all-time against UK, including a 30-27 win in the Stoops era back in 2015. UK won its last meeting in Auburn in 2009.
Offensive tackle Landon Young wasn’t shy with his opinion on UK’s underdog status on Tuesday.
“We’re always underrated, and that’s been true since the day I got here,” Young said. “UK always gets the shaft in sort of the media standpoint on how good we are. I think year after year we’ve proved to them that we’re a better team but we still get that discredit.
“ ... These teams want to protect this view that the media has of them and this high rating that the media has of them. Well, to the media, we’re crap, so what do we have to lose by giving it everything and beating these teams?”
Season opener
No. 23 Kentucky at No. 8 Auburn
Noon Saturday (SEC Network)
