First Scouting Report: Can Kentucky continue Vanderbilt’s misery?
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Game day: Georgia 14, Kentucky 3
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Georgia football game at Kroger Field in Lexington, Ky.
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An early look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next football game:
The opponent
Kentucky (2-4 SEC) will face Vanderbilt (0-4 SEC after losing 54-21 on Saturday to Mississippi) on Saturday, Nov. 14, at Kroger Field.
The game will kick off at noon and be telecast by the SEC Network.
After starting the season with losses at Texas A&M (17-12), vs. LSU (41-7) and vs. South Carolina (41-7), Coach Derek Mason’s Commodores did not play the next two weeks due to COVID-19 outbreaks within the Vandy team.
Vanderbilt is also scheduled to play at Mississippi State (Nov. 7) the week before coming to Lexington.
Series history
Kentucky leads the series with Vanderbilt 46-42-4 and has won four in a row and five out of six.
Most recent meeting
Kentucky spotted Vandy a 14-3 lead after one quarter, then ran off 35 straight points en route to a 38-14 victory at Vanderbilt Stadium on Nov. 16, 2019.
Know your foe
1. Vanderbilt’s roster has been decimated by attrition. Vandy has lost multiple players — including starting linebacker Feleti Afemui, offensive linemen Bryce Bailey, Cole Clemens, Stephen Spanellis and Jonathan Stewart and place-kicker Oren Milstein — who have opted out due to COVID-19 concerns.
Meanwhile, at least five other Commodores players have entered the transfer portal since the spring.
The coronavirus outbreak that occurred within the Vanderbilt program then exacerbated Vandy’s already-diminished numbers.
2. Vandy star linebacker Dimitri Moore also initially opted out, but changed his mind and decided to play. Though the 6-foot-3, 234-pound senior did not appear in the season-opening loss at Texas A&M, Moore has made 17 tackles in the two games since.
3. Former Kentucky quarterback Danny Clark transferred to Vanderbilt from Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Mississippi with an eye on claiming the vacant Vandy starting QB job.
Instead, Vanderbilt has gone with true freshman Ken Seals.
A 6-3, 218-pound product of Azle, Texas, Seals has been a relative bright spot for the Commodores. He has completed 61.5 percent of his passes for 411 yards and three touchdowns with four interceptions.
Meanwhile, Vandy’s Mason announced Saturday following the loss to Ole Miss that ex-Cat Clark has opted out for the remainder of the season.
This story was originally published October 31, 2020 at 3:21 PM.
