First Scouting Report: In final home game, Kentucky will try to beat an ex-UK QB
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Game day: Kentucky 34, Vanderbilt 17
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday night’s Kentucky-Vanderbilt football game at Vanderbilt Stadium in Nashville, Tenn.
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An early look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next football game:
The opponent
Kentucky (7-3, 5-3 SEC) will face New Mexico State (1-9) on Saturday, Nov 20, at Kroger Field.
The game will kick off at noon (EST) and be telecast by the SEC Network.
Coach Doug Martin’s Aggies lost 59-3 at No. 2 Alabama on Saturday (Nov. 13).
Series history
Kentucky leads 1-0.
Most recent meeting
Stephen Johnson replaced an injured Drew Barker at quarterback for Kentucky and threw for 310 yards and three touchdowns and true freshman Benny Snell ran for 136 yards and four TDs as Kentucky won a wild shootout with New Mexico State 62-42 on Sept. 17, 2016, at Kroger Field.
Know your foe
1. Saturday at Kroger Field will be a homecoming for New Mexcio State Coach Doug Martin. A product of Oak Ridge, Tenn., Martin is a former Kentucky quarterback (1981-83).
He was recruited to UK by Fran Curci and started four games for the Wildcats as QB in Jerry Claiborne’s first season as Cats coach in 1982.
Martin also served as a student assistant coach (1984) and a graduate assistant (1986-87) at UK under Claiborne.
As UK students, Martin also met the woman, Vicki Teater, who would become his wife.
2. If the “coaching hot seats” are to be believed, Martin’s time as New Mexico State head man may be drawing to a close.
In 2017, Martin coached NMSU — a chronically underfunded football program that many consider the toughest coaching job in the FBS — to a 7-6 season that ended with a 26-20 victory over Utah State in the Arizona Bowl.
That may not sound like a big deal, but it was the Aggies’ first winning season since 2002 and first bowl trip since the 1960 Sun Bowl.
New Mexico State was not able to capitalize on the momentum from that season, however, and has gone 7-29 since.
3. New Mexico State’s two-game, late-season swing through the SEC is entirely about finances.
Alabama paid the Aggies $1.9 million to play in Tuscaloosa this past Saturday; UK is paying NMSU $1.2 million for its appearance in Lexington this coming Saturday.
This story was originally published November 13, 2021 at 10:14 PM.
