First scouting report: Can Kentucky bounce back at Mississippi State?
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Game day: Kentucky vs. Florida
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An early look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next football game:
The opponent
Kentucky (2-1, 0-1 SEC after a crushing 29-21 loss to No. 9 Florida) will travel to Starkville, Miss., to face Mississippi State (2-1, 0-0 SEC) Saturday, Sept. 21, at 4 p.m. (EDT) at Davis Wade Stadium.
The game will either be telecast on the SEC Network or the SEC Network alternate channel.
Coach Joe Moorhead’s Bulldogs lost to Kansas State 31-24 Saturday at home.
Most recent meeting
Kentucky star running back Benny Snell ran for 165 yards and four touchdowns and a Josh Allen-led UK defense limited Mississippi State to 56 net yards rushing as the Wildcats throttled the No. 14 Bulldogs 28-7 before a Kroger Field crowd of 60,037 on Sept. 22, 2018.
Series history
The series is tied 23-23. Kentucky has won two of the past three, but the Wildcats have not won in Starkville since Randall Cobb quarterbacked UK to a 14-13 victory at Davis Wade Stadium on Nov. 1, 2008.
Now a wide receiver with the Dallas Cowboys, Cobb went 1-3 as UK’s starting QB late in the 2008 season.
Know your foe
1. In the Mark Stoops coaching era, Davis Wade Stadium has been a haunted house for Kentucky. Under Stoops UK is 0-3 in Starkville and has been outscored a combined 115-45. The worst of those three defeats came on Kentucky’s most recent visit, a 45-7 pasting in 2017.
2. Mississippi State Coach Joe Moorhead, the former Penn State offensive coordinator, chose PSU graduate transfer Tommy Stevens over Keytaon Thompson as the Bulldogs’ starting quarterback. Stevens, however, has been battling a shoulder injury suffered in State’s game two win over Southern Mississippi and has been replaced by true freshman Garrett Shrader in each of the past two games.
On Saturday against Kansas State, Stevens (7-of-15 passing for 100 yards with one touchdown pass and two interceptions) got the start at QB but was pulled early in the third quarter. In relief, Shrader (4-of-12 passing for 51 yards) was not especially effective through the air, either.
3. Mississippi State is in transition defensively after having four starters, three defensive linemen, selected in the 2019 NFL Draft. As a result, going into the Kansas State game, MSU was giving up well over 100 yards more a game in 2019 (387 yards) than it did last season (269). In falling to Kansas State, Mississippi State played well, holding the Wildcats to 263 total yards.
This story was originally published September 14, 2019 at 10:58 PM.
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