Neal Brown knows Kentucky football.He grew up a UK fan and followed the program even as he moved up the collegiate coaching ranks as a bright young offensive mind at stops across the country.It should come as no surprise, then, that Brown is well aware of the Wildcats’ history with their opponent this weekend.”I very much know what happened the last time they rolled in here to town, so we’ll be ready to roll,” Brown said.That last time was in 2004, when the Bobcats came into Commonwealth Stadium and posted a 28-16 victory. UK (1-0) is in a very different place now than it was 10 years ago during Rich Brooks’ second season, but the lesson learned on that day still holds true.Accordingly, UK is intently focused on Ohio heading into a matchup at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, not that Mark Stoops needed a past game as a reminder.”My team, myself, we definitely can’t take anybody for granted,” Stoops said. “We’re at that stage where we need to play well no matter who we’re playing.”If they don’t, the Bobcats are likely to take advantage.Ohio (1-0) opened the season with a 17-14 victory over Kent State, needing a last-second field goal to overcome the Golden Flashes. The Bobcats, however, had a 437-295 edge in total yardage and held Kent State to a paltry 31 rushing yards on 22 carries.”It’s obviously going to be a much bigger challenge for us with Ohio,” Stoops said. “Looking forward to playing Ohio. Coach (Frank) Solich has been around for a long time and been extremely successful. He’s building a very consistent program there at Ohio. … They’re a team that’s not going to beat themselves. They’re just good and sound.”On defense, the Bobcats return eight starters from last year’s team, a group that carried Ohio to a fifth straight bowl berth.”They’re not going to do a whole lot (unusual),” Brown said. “They will blitz their linebackers, but they play base defense, mix up their coverages. They tackle really well; their guys aren’t out of position very often at all. I thought they played really, really well last Saturday night.”The same was true of UK’s offense in its opener.The Wildcats piled up 656 total yards – fourth most in school history – behind first-time starting quarterback Patrick Towles. Towles completed passes to nine different receivers in spite of throwing just 29 times and exiting before the start of the fourth quarter.”It’s just a testament to Coach Brown and his offense,” Towles said. “There could be a play where five guys are open and the stat only shows the one guy who I threw it to.”The offensive improvement Stoops and Brown talked about all offseason was on display against UT Martin, but it’s not clear exactly how much better UK has gotten just yet. Ohio’s athletic defense will be another measuring stick.”I think a lot more of the story will be told this week,” Brown said. “See how we do against a good football team that’s been to five bowl games in a row, I believe. But there were some moments — we threw the ball and caught the ball. That didn’t happen one time last year.”The UK defense was good too, pitching a shutout deep into the third quarter behind a strong starting group. In practice this week, the Cats have gone to work building depth. The second team, however, isn’t alone in pursuing improvement.Seniors Bud Dupree and Za’Darius Smith are the cornerstones of the group styling itself the “Bad Boys,” but the pair combined for just nine tackles against UT Martin, with none coming behind the line of scrimmage. “I saw a couple instances when they were trying to do too much, and that’s bound to happen when you have guys that want to be playmakers and they want to do is what they can do, make big plays,” Stoops said. “But you have to do that within the scheme. Nothing earth shattering or anything like that. Nothing we can’t get corrected. Simple little things that we’ll get fixed.”Dupree and Smith will need to be on their game Saturday against Ohio quarterback Derrius Vick. The first-time starter was a terror against Kent State with both his arm and his legs, throwing for two touchdowns and 262 yards and running for 35 more.”We have to execute the defense within the plan for athletic quarterbacks, but you don’t have to do anything different,” defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot said. “You just have to be aware of what your responsibility is and aware that is a threat within the game.”Execution, in other words, will be the name of the game.”With Ohio, they’re obviously more talented, have some great experience,” Stoops said. “They’re good football players, they really are. Five straight bowl games, return eight starters on defense, a team that plays sound, good, tough football. They’re not going to give you things easy. You have to go earn them.”