Blue Preview: Your guide to UK’s football game at Texas A&M
No. 13 Kentucky at Texas A&M
When: 7 p.m. EDT Saturday
Where: Kyle Field, College Station, Texas
TV: ESPN (play-by-play, Sean McDonough; analyst, Todd Blackledge; sideline, Holly Rowe)
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1, XM Channel 210, Sirius Channel 135
Records: Kentucky (5-0, 3-0 SEC); Texas A&M (3-2, 1-1 SEC)
Series: Is tied 1-1 (this will be the first football meeting between the schools as SEC members)
Last meeting: Texas A&M beat Kentucky 7-6 Sept. 19, 1953, at Stoll Field in Lexington in the season opener for both teams.
Favorite: Texas A&M is favored by six points
The story line
Kentucky will travel to the Lone Star State to try run its record to 6-0, 4-0 SEC, in a football season for the first time since Bear Bryant, Babe Parilli and the 1950 Wildcats started 10-0, 5-0, before losing at Tennessee. In Texas A&M Coach Jimbo Fisher, UK head man Mark Stoops will be facing an old boss. Stoops served as Fisher’s defensive coordinator at Florida State from 2010 through 2012.
The big threat
Trayveon Williams. What Benny Snell means to Kentucky, the Texas A&M junior means to the Aggies. The 5-foot-9, 200-pound Houston product has run for 582 yards (Snell has 639) and six touchdowns and is averaging a robust 6.1 yards a carry. Given the national attention Snell has attracted in 2018, Williams will have an opportunity to show an ESPN national audience that he, not the UK star, is the SEC’s premier running back.
On the spot
The Kentucky offensive line. After dominating South Carolina last week in the first half, the UK offensive front lost the battle at the line of scrimmage in half two. It was the first time this season Kentucky spent an entire half unable to consistently run the football. With its normally powerful ground attack throttled, UK was shut out in half two after putting 24 first-half points on the scoreboard before halftime. Texas A&M will go to school on how South Carolina defended the Cats in half two. Kentucky will need its offensive line to reassert itself.
The mood
Combines euphoria with unease. Through five games, 2018 has been the dream season The Long-Suffering UK Football Fans have craved for eons. However, chastened by painful past experience, the psyche of Wildcats football backers is fragile, and Kentucky’s offensive stagnation in the second half against South Carolina set off some fan-base alarms. In front of 102,733 screaming Aggies, UK will seek to get its offensive mojo back, calm its fans and add another signature victory to its impressive start to the 2018 season.
Mark Story: (859) 231-3230; Twitter: @markcstory
This story was originally published October 1, 2018 at 11:36 AM.