#14/15 KENTUCKY WILDCATS (6-2, 2-2 SEC)
vs. MISSISSIPPI STATE BULLDOGS (4-4, 1-3 SEC)
Saturday, Oct. 27 ? 12:30 p.m. EDT
Lexington, Ky. ? Commonwealth Stadium (67,606)
TV: , ESPN Gameplan
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The Kentucky football team will look to bounce back from a narrow loss to No. 14 Florida on Sautrday when it plays host to Mississippi State in Commonwealth Stadium. Kick-off is slated for 12:30 p.m. EDT and the game will be carried live by Lincoln Financial Sports.
The Wildcats have won eight of their last nine home games and played in front of the largest crowd in Commonwealth Stadium history – 71,024 fans – in their last outing. Kentucky had two receivers – Steve Johnson and Dicky Lyons – go over the 100-yard receiving mark last Saturday. The Cats have had a 100-yard receiver in six games this season.
Kentucky has won four of its last five meetings with Mississippi State and lead the all-time series 20-14, including a hard-fought 34-31 victory in Starkville last season. Mississippi State is 4-4 overall and 1-3 in the Southeastern Conference. With four wins, the Bulldogs already have their most victories since the 2000 season.
QUICK NOTES
Saturday?s game is Homecoming for the Wildcats. UK is 45-16 in Homecoming games since 1946. UK defeated Georgia last season on Homecoming 24-20, its first win over the Bulldogs in 10 years. This is UK?s next-to-last home game of the season before playing host to Tennessee on Nov. 24. Kentucky is No. 14 in the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) standings. This is the first season in school history that UK has been in the BCS standings. Kentucky had its eight-game home win streak — a Commonwealth Stadium record — snapped by Florida last weekend. Kentucky?s offense ranks eighth in the nation and leads the SEC in scoring offense, averaging 42.0 points per game. UK has scored at least 40 points in six of eight games this season. Kentucky leads the SEC and ranks 14th nationally in total offense (466.50) and passing efficiency (151.38). UK gained 512 yards of total offense against Florida, the most allowed by the Gator defense this season. UK?s 415 yards passing and 37 points also were the most allowed by the Florida defense this season. Kentucky has charted at least 300 yards of total offense in 13 consecutive games and twice this season have gone over the 500-yard total-offense mark (vs. Florida and Fla. Atlantic). Linebacker Wesley Woodyard leads the SEC and currently ranks tied for 19th nationally in tackles, averaging 10.5 per game. He is the only SEC player to average double-figure tackles this season. Defensive end Jeremy Jarmon ranks third in the SEC and is tied for 24th nationally in sacks with 6.5 on the year. The sophomore has recorded at least one sack in seven of the last 10 games. Quarterback Andr? Woodson threw for 415 yards and charted a career-high tying five touchdowns vs. Florida. The senior leads the SEC in passing yards per game, averaging 275.1 ypg and has throw for at least 200 yards in 14 straight games. Woodson also has thrown at least two touchdown passes in nine straight games. He ranks second in the SEC and 14th nationally in passing efficiency (153.8). The Wildcats are 37-of-40 in the red-zone this season which ranks third in the SEC. UK was 3-of-4 in the red-zone vs. Florida. Kentucky has made the most of its third-down opportunities this season, as the Wildcats rank fourth in the nation in third-down conversions. UK has made 51.7 percent of its third-down chances so far this season. UK ranks in the top three of 10 SEC statistical categories, leading the league in scoring offense (42.0), pass offense (279.4), total offense (466.5), and first downs (212). Kentucky ranks fourth in the league in turnover margin at +0.38. The Wildcats have recovered six fumbles and picked off 10 passes this season. UK had won or tied the turnover margin in 12 of the last 13 games. UK is 3-0 this season when winning the turnover battle. The crowd of 71,024 vs. Florida was the largest crowd in the 35-year history of Commonwealth Stadium. The previous high was 71,017 in 2002 vs. Georgia.
PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES – OCT. 22
Head Coach Rich Brooks
Opening Statement…
“Injury update real quickly; Micah Johnson had his surgery this morning, having some (knee) cartilage removed. We hope he’ll be on the mend and be ready after the bye week. (Will) Fidler will have his surgery on Thursday and will be out the rest of the year. He should be ready to go by the spring practice. Tony Dixon is questionable, as is Keenan Burton. We’ll see in the next couple of days how they come along. Dicky Lyons still has a little sickness; hopefully he’ll be okay by tomorrow.
“Looking at Mississippi State, I thought they had played some outstanding football earlier this season … I continue to be impressed by their running game and the size and physicality of their offense. In their running game, (Anthony) Dixon’s a big, powerful runner. Their offensive line is huge. The quarterback is doing some good things for being a redshirt freshman, and they have tall receivers which will be a difficult match-up for us in coverage. Defensively they are also very physical and any team that can go into Auburn and beat them says to me that they have some very good SEC players. We’ve got our work cut out for us. Every week is a new challenge and we’ll have to bounce off of a tough loss. We just have to go out there and execute and try to get this thing going again.”
On what impressed him the most about the game on Saturday…
“I think what we did best was moving the ball and scoring some points on a very good (Florida) defense. A very athletic and talented defense.”
On Micah Johnson’s injury…
“They trimmed some things up in there, and now it’s just a matter of how much swelling there is and how the rehab goes. The good news is that it was done today, so two weeks and a day will lead to the first practice that he’ll come back and get ready for the next game. I’ve had some players come back and play eight days after a knee scope and other players not play three or four weeks after a knee scope, so it all depends on how the player and injury responds. The good news is that it’s not a season-ending injury.”
On how significant last season’s win at Mississippi State was in turning the season around…
“It was very significant. Our defense did some very good things against the run in that game, and we got some pretty big plays on offense. They (MSU) kept coming back on us. It’s what I would consider a typical SEC game, where it’s typically going to come down to the fourth quarter. I think our team got used to being in those close games and making good plays instead of bad plays in those situations.”
On the similarities between Mississippi State this year and Kentucky last year…
“They’re an improved team there isn’t a question about that. Much like we were last year, they’re looking for consistency each week. Remember we’re talking about a team that went into Auburn and beat them at Auburn. Auburn’s the real deal, they’ve got really good players. I just think that it’s a consistency thing with them. I think that he (Mississippi State Head Coach Sylvester Croom) is a really good coach and he’s got them doing some really good things. Inconsistency is what gets under your skin as a coach, and I hope that they just wait another week to find that consistency.”
On the home crowd this year…
“I think our crowd this year has been very good. I think they appreciate what they see on the field from our players in terms of effort, not always execution, but effort. Obviously the success that comes with that is key. They are giving us a home field advantage with the opposing teams coming in here, which is so important in this conference. In the past, this hasn’t been one of the toughest places to go on the road and win a game, but now it’s certainly up there, I believe, because of our fans.”
On the emergence of freshman running back Derrick Locke…
“It’s been interesting to see how young players, when they get their first chance, can respond to it. Some of them struggle with it, while others take advantage of it. Derrick Locke has responded in a manner more of a junior or senior and hasn’t been weak of heart, mind or spirit, and he’s been a very, very important part of where we are right now. Without him performing like he has, we wouldn’t be where we are.”
On Keenan Burton’s injuries affecting his number of catches…
“Keenan is simply one of the best receivers I’ve ever coached. That doesn’t mean he’s going to catch ‘X’ amount of balls each game. He’s battled sickness and nagging minor injuries all season and it’s limited his practice reps. It has limited him from coming out of his breaks with the efficiency and speed that he normally does, and he’s still performing at a very, very high level. I’m just looking forward, for him, to get to that bye week when some of these things will heal up.”
Kentucky Players
#18 Jacob Tamme, TE
On losing to Florida…
“It’s a tough loss. Our guys poured their hearts out there, and it’s tough anytime you do that and lose, but it’s time to move on now, last week is done we can’t take anything back. We have a tough opponent this week. It’s Mississippi State coming here, who has already shown they can win on the road after beating Auburn.”
On Mississippi State coming into this weekend’s game…
“It seems like last year we were in their situation where we needed this game to get into a bowl game, because right now they’re saying this is one of the games we need to get to go to a bowl game and do something they haven’t done. Right now we are bowl eligible but we don’t want what we had last year, this is a game we were need to go out and prepare as hard as we can. We want to go out and get that seventh win.”
On last year’s game against Mississippi State…
“It was a dogfight, back-and-forth game. They are much improved from last year, they are a better football team, and they have proven that. We need go out and have a good week of practice and play with the same kind of emotion we have like the past two weeks.”
On preparing for the game…
“I think the maturity level of this team is good enough where we know what we have to do this week. It’s no different from the last two teams. They are a physical, pound you type of team and we’ll have to be ready to match and exceed that.”
#91 Corey Peters, DT
On rebounding from the Florida game…
“I think we will be fine We’ve done a good job in the past putting games behind us and building off of it, learning from our mistakes. Personally, I’m glad we got Florida out of the way. They do a lot of unconventional things that we’re not used to.”
On the defense line dodging the injury bug…
“It’s a big advantage but when we get Ricky (Lumpkin) back it will really help us out. Now we can rotate four (defensive tackles) and it will keep us fresh.”
On the defense making strides…
“Very much so. I feel confident. Our numbers might not be the best but I felt like all season at times when we’ve needed stops we have been able to step up and get them. Now we’re working towards being more consistent. I feel as the season progresses we’ll get better and better.”
On watching the Florida tape yesterday…
“It’s tough to swallow on the third down plays when just one guy was out of position and it’s always hard to accept when it was so close there for us. But it’s a good learning tool. Now we know one mistake can cost you the game it was good for us to see it.”
#50 Sam Maxwell, LB
On becoming a more physical defense…
“Coach really got onto the defense last year, telling us we needed to be more physical. It really made us think, and we wanted to see how this physical thing works for us. It turned out to be great for us. We’ve been sticking with that attitude this whole season. We just go out there and play as a team. We work hard and we try to be more physical, because we know that the pounding takes a toll on the other team in the fourth quarter. You can’t really see it on the field at the time, because nobody wants to show their weakness but as you watch film on Sundays you see how we wore them down. But, then you can also see where they were wearing us down.”
On not having Micah Johnson in the lineup this week…
“It’s a big loss for us on the depth chart and as a good friend. We always talk to each other when we’re out there and try to encourage each other. I know he’ll be on the sideline cheering me on. He will be coaching me on what I need to do, and what I’ve done well. Braxton Kelley is a great player, and I know he’s going to step up this week.”
On having two tough, physical games in back-to-back weeks…
“It could be a little problem, but our mentality kicks in now. We have a little pain that just means we’ve been playing hard. It’s just a big mental thing, we’ve got to get back out there now. You can’t just think about the little bumps and bruises, because every game from here on out has got to be a win. Every game is tough. We just have to have the mentality to come in and get ready to play hard again this week.”
