Mark Story

First Scouting Report: At Missouri, UK will face a highly motivated foe

By Mark Story

Updated October 30, 2022 11:34 AM

Game day: No. 3 Tennessee 44, No. 19 Kentucky 6

Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Tennessee football game at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville.

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An early look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next football game:

The opponent

No. 19 Kentucky (5-3, 2-3 SEC) will travel to Columbia to face Missouri (4-4, 2-3 SEC) at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium (seating capacity 62,621).

The game will kick off at noon (EDT) and be telecast by the SEC Network.

Coach Eli Drinkwitz’s Tigers went on the road and defeated No. 25 South Carolina 23-10 Saturday.

Series history

Kentucky leads 8-4. The Wildcats have won six of the past seven meetings with Mizzou.

UK Coach Mark Stoops is 6-3 vs. Missouri.

Mizzou Coach Eli Drinkwitz is 1-1 vs. Kentucky.

Kentucky Coach Mark Stoops, left, spoke with Missouri head man Eli Drinkwitz before the Wildcats and Tigers faced off in Columbia in 2020. Mizzou won that game 20-10, its only victory over Kentucky in the last seven meetings between the two. L.G. Patterson AP

Kentucky quarterback Will Levis (7) ran by Missouri linebacker Devin Nicholson (11) en route to a touchdown in UK’s 35-28 victory over Mizzou last season at Kroger Field. Alex Slitz aslitz@herald-leader.com

Most recent meeting

Christopher Rodriguez ran for 207 yards and Wan’Dale Robinson caught five passes for 101 yards to help Kentucky hold off Missouri 35-28 on Sept. 11, 2021, at Kroger Field in Lexington.

Know your foe

1. Before Saturday’s victory at South Carolina, Missouri had been the SEC’s hard-luck team. The Tigers’ three league losses have come by a combined margin of 14 points.

Mizzou lost by three, 17-14 in overtime at Auburn; by four, 26-22, to No. 1 Georgia; and by seven, 24-17, at Florida.

2. Kentucky figures to face a motivated foe in Columbia. At SEC Media Day, Mizzou defensive back Martez Manuel said he considers UK to be the Tigers’ foremost conference rival. Manuel said that had a lot to do with some controversial endings (think 2017 and 2018) during Kentucky’s current stretch of winning six out of seven from Missouri.

“I just hate that blue and white,” Manuel told the Columbia Daily Tribune.

3. With UK-nemesis Connor Bazelak now in Bloomington quarterbacking Indiana, St. Louis product Brady Cook is running the offense for Missouri. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound sophomore entered Saturday’s game at South Carolina completing 65.1 percent of his throws for 1,423 yards and six touchdowns.

Cook has been a bit turnover-prone, however, having thrown seven combined interceptions in the first seven games.

Against the Gamecocks, Cook completed 17 of 26 passes for 224 yards with no TDs or picks.

Missouri quarterback Brady Cook entered play Saturday having completed 65.1 percent of his throws for 1,423 yards with six touchdowns vs. seven interceptions. John Raoux AP

Kentucky is probably more than willing to take its chances with a Mizzou QB other than Bazelak. Last year in Lexington, Bazelak completed 34 of 51 passes for 294 yards and four touchdowns vs. one pick.

Two seasons ago in Columbia, Bazelak completed 21 of 30 passes for 201 yards while leading the Tigers to a 20-10 victory that snapped a five-game losing streak vs. UK.

This story was originally published October 29, 2022 at 10:38 PM.

Mark Story

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-444-4731

Mark Story has worked in the Lexington Herald-Leader sports department since Aug. 27, 1990, and has been a Herald-Leader sports columnist since 2001. I have covered every Kentucky-Louisville football game since 1994, every UK-U of L basketball game but three since 1996-97 and every Kentucky Derby since 1994. Support my work with a digital subscription