Kentucky’s long wait between games hasn’t been any fun.For two weeks, the Wildcats have had to stew over a triple-overtime loss at Florida. They’ve thought over and over about all the things, big and small, they could have done to turn a defeat that came by the slimmest of margins into a signature win.On Saturday against Vanderbilt, the Cats finally get to take a shot at washing away the sour taste that’s stayed with them for too long.”This is a great opportunity for us to go out and showcase what we have (done) over the break that we had, to make up for the mistakes that we had during the Florida game and to show that we fixed it,” Bud Dupree said.In Dupree’s mind, UK’s defense against the power run game is where the most unshakeable mistakes happened. The Cats allowed 237 rushing yards in the 36-30 loss, the majority coming on simple runs by the bruising Matt Jones, who piled up 156 yards and a touchdown.With that in mind, Vanderbilt (1-3, 0-1 Southeastern Conference) is a fitting next test for UK (2-1, 0-1 SEC) at noon ET on Saturday in Commonwealth Stadium. Under first-year head coach Derek Mason, the Commodores use the same big sets with multiple tight ends and extra offensive linemen that have been staples in Stanford’s ascent among the college football elite in recent years. “It used to be that spread offensives were unique and now it’s kind of the other way,” defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot said. “We just don’t see a lot of that stuff, so we’ve got to make sure that we’re playing sound.”As much of a throwback as the style may be, the Commodores are about much more than brute force. “There’s more to it than just lining up with an extra big body in there and an extra tight end and things like that,” Mark Stoops said. “(People) think it’s all just about power and things like that (but) they’re creative in what they do, in creating extra gaps, and there’s most definitely some very effective play-actions off that. That was evident this past week where they were able to get some good yardage out of some runs and also hit some play-actions off their big heavy sets.”The combination of power runs and play-actions helped Vanderbilt put together its best performance of the season in a 48-34 loss against South Carolina, rushing for better than five yards per carry and gaining 379 total yards. The Commodores built an early lead on the No. 14 Gamecocks and nearly pulled off the upset behind two kickoff return touchdowns by Darrius Sims.”I thought they played with great energy this past week,” Stoops said. “You could see the excitement. They played hard. They’re getting better and better, playing more confident.”On defense, Vanderbilt returns much of a front seven that allowed just 262 yards in a 22-6 win over Kentucky last season, though the Commodores have switched to a 3-4 system anchored by defensive tackle Adam Butler and linebacker Caleb Azubike.”The thing that sticks out is they got a lot of returnees up front on defense –defensive line, linebackers,” offensive coordinator Neal Brown said. “They’re new in the secondary, but those guys up front really gave us issues last year. They’re big.”Vandy uses that size, first and foremost, to stymie the ground game. Brown, with his deep and talented backfield, refuses to concede that UK won’t be able to run effectively, but he knows that’s the Commodores’ aim.”That’s their style of defense,” Brown said. “Coach Stoops and Coach Eliot have gone to a very similar style and it’s hard to run the football. They take away your edges. They do a really good job at Stanford playing against the run and they’ve done that well. If we have to throw the ball then we have to throw it.”With Patrick Towles at quarterback, throwing the ball hasn’t been a major concern for Brown.Towles is coming off an outing in which he threw for 369 yards and three touchdowns in his first road start. As he builds experience, he only figures to improve.”He’s giving us a chance, there’s no question,” Brown said. “He’s done a good job. Can he be better? Absolutely. Can he do some things fundamentally better? Absolutely. Am I pleased with his progress through three games? Yes.”The same is true for UK’s receiving corps. The group has combined for four touchdowns through three games, all of which have been scored by true freshmen.”They’re getting sharper on their routes and they’re also getting smarter,” Towles said. “That comes with experience. They’ve played three big-time college football games, so they’ve recognized what works and what doesn’t work and they’re starting to cut off some slough. It’s really, really helping.”UK will rely heavily on those young wide receivers on Saturday as the Cats look to end a 17-game SEC losing streak that dates back to a win over Tennessee in the final game of 2011. Included in that streak is a pair of defeats to Vanderbilt, the first of which came two years ago by a final tally of 40-0.The Cats don’t deny those things are on their mind, but their primary focus is narrower than that.”We just need a win,” Towles said. “We’ve got that bad taste in our mouth from Gainesville and we’re working every day so we do get that win. An SEC win is important. We haven’t had one in a while. But that’s going to come. We’re just going to try to do everything we can to win this football game on Saturday.”