vanderbill: UK... What do we know about them? They're never world beaters, but rather simply steady, and seem to have found a pocket in the top half of conference for the most part. I see them as spoilers more often than contenders. VU had best get their heads straight quickly, or they will get crushed in Lexington.
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Chris Lee: Their defense is legit. Got a difference-making corner and a bunch of studs up front led by Deone Walker. It'll be the best defense they've played.
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KnoxvilleDore94: Pretty good receivers as well. Maclin and brown are both very good. Rbs lack that extra gear from what I've seen.
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fog_horn: I'm guessing Beck will install some new packages this week to offset UK's bye-week advantage of scouting us. I wish I know how much of Bama's inability to stop us was their confusion vs lack of preparation vs sloppy/lazy execution. Beating UK would be huge, and make me expect to win every remaining game on our schedule save for UTA.
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gvr5804: This game is going to be rough. Their defense is tops.
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MachoManVandy Savage1: I think it's all about us taking care of what we do. Our offense can score points.
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Brain13: A piece of me says if Bama can't stop it, why can they? And we should just keep our same approach. Pavia said in the bye week that the main thing stopping us before was ourselves in the form of dumb penalties that would get us behind the sticks. We cleaned that up, and you saw the results. Agree UK's D is legit, and it already stopped one Pavia-like QB in Dart, so we're in for some trouble. But as long as we keep it clean, we have so much momentum right now I expect us to score 25 points or more.
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Dtb4: About as bad a matchup as we will have in my opinion, under Texas and UT in that order. They will stop us at the line and we will have a lot of 2nd and 12s and 3rd and longs. They will score methodically and potentially quickly. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see this as being competitive for the match up alone, but timing is not ideal at all.
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VandyNashman: They've had two weeks to scheme and watched what we did against Bama. Beck / Kill have a heavy lift to replicate for Kentucky what they did versus Alabama. Hoping for the best.
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DansWillMakeYouDance: Offensively, it’s a bad match up. They are dang good on defense, and they’ve had two weeks to prepare. Defensively, it’s better because of Kentucky’s lack of consistency in the pass game. We can stop the run. Any decent passing offense gives us fits. I’ll say this and Vandagriff will look like a Heisman candidate on Saturday. I don’t have a good feeling about Saturday, but I do expect it to be close.
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MMVandySavage: From the tape I've watched on our offense - including the Bama game, even if you've scouted us to death, UK's best defensive players will still have to make split-second micro decisions that are really, really difficult when Pavia & Beck create options. He's been so good at improvising when things get cut off quickly. That 4th and 1 play is a perfect example - Bama reading it dead to rights but Pavia still throws an in stride TD. Same on that last drive - phenomenal play by Pavia when Bama had it called correctly. That TD to Kam Johnson was a masterpiece. That said, can't disagree, UK is absolutely legit on defense and they are not nearly as reckless on penalties as Bama. This game will be won or lost on 3rd down, any significant turnovers, and if we can score TDs in the redzone. The UK offense is gross though and if we put a complete game together on defense - this will be tight and go down to the wire.
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Pepperdore: UK seems like they will make things a lot harder on the offense, both by talent, system, and limiting dumb penalties, the last of which gifted us more than a few third down conversions against Bama. However, less might be required of the offense against Kentucky because while they have some elite receivers, I wouldn't say they pose a greater threat than Bama's offense. Our offense essentially had to be perfect against Bama. We fail to convert one of those drives (notwithstanding the pick 6 score) and we likely lose.
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TBGraham: If you want to talk about luck, UK vs Ole Miss was quite lucky with a fumble at the goal line bouncing right into their player’s hands for a TD. If we play defense like we did this week we will stop them. This will be a huge week for Lea. If we are focused, and I think we will be, this should be right down to the end and I like our intangibles
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Jc32vu: It’s crazy how things our perspective has flipped since fall camp. We went into the season thinking our defense was going to be good and offense bad.. and that has now flipped. I still think our defense has more to show, and can deploy a completely different strategy against Kentucky than vs Bama where we were just trying to stop the big play at all costs.
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DCCommodore1: If we beat UK and Ball St and Texas remains number 1….We could knock off two number 1s in the same month
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Godores1995: Also will be ranked if they go 2-0 in the coming weeks and probably game day on campus for texas but they have to win and not Georgia State this game
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VUWARS: Big If, considering our valleys are still quite deep. But the peaks have risen as well!
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wkudore: We dont have to knock off Kentucky and Ball St to beat two #1s in the same month. Only need for Texas not to lose and then beat them.
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Brain13: In my experience college teams play in waves of good then bad. We embed low at GSt and then found our way against Mizzou in the second half and for all of the Bama game. Maybe we can ride this wave a few more quarters.
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NashNative615: Kentucky plays a lot of zone coverage. mainly 3 and 4. They are very similar to Vandy when it comes to philosophy. They limit big plays and make you beat them by sustaining drives. They are in cover 3 (or some variation) 70% of the game against UGA. UgA couldn’t get anything deep and runs between the tackles were limited to less than 3 yards. They have a CJ Taylor type player in Zion Childress (#11). He will be their best weapon to blow up the mesh and option plays. I think it is really overblown people saying UK’s front 7 is better than Bamas. It’s not. They better plan to support their front than Bama and avoid 1v1 situations. Bama lives and dies by playing “our guy is better than yours”. It’s interesting watching UGA closer on review of their game with UK. I walk away thinking about UGA what I feel about Bama. Very vanilla. Uninspiring game plans. My theory is it’s the transfer portal and the inability to install full playbooks. The mercenary for hire era is equalizing the playing field.
UK’s offense is dreadful but it has some talent that could give VU challenges. Turnovers will be out there for the taking. Their transfer QB is one of the worst Vandy will play against. He is a lesser Drones from VTech, and is very inaccurate. Both teams will be playing ball control and milking the clock.
I have high confidence Kill/Beck will have cover 3 zone beaters on tap. A lot flood concepts where Pavia will roll out and Vandy will have short intermediate deep options stressing the zone. Georgia’s best drives (which were few and far between) involved play action and rolling out. Something Vandy does way better than Carson Beck. I would at a minimum bet Vandy to cover.
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DoreFan: What I know about UK: they are not remotely as good or as deep as Alabama.
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BreakOnThrough: I just don’t think Bama’s DC is very good. Ky will be very tough for us. Georgia State had us stopped most of the first half down there because they have a good coach.
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og706: Must beat UK. Or lose the national coverage and momentum. Huge game!!
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All n 4 Vandy: IMOO this game's more critical than last weekend's-
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J2M: They are all critical going forward. Still have to find three wins against a very tough schedule.
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side dore:
I've been watching some replays of Kentucky games. Defense is impressive. Offense is lost. Their interior Defensive lineman are first rounders. Defense can play with anyone. Our defense seemed to make Georgia State look good. All depends on which version of us comes out to play on Saturday.
- The Kentucky defense is for real.
- Arguably a better defense than Alabama.
- South Carolina Game was a bit of an outlier. South Carolina won 31-6 and only gained 252 yards. Kentcky only had 139 yards and threw 2 interceptions including a pick 6. 4 fumbles but didn't lose any.
- Kentucky offense really struggled the first few games (including against Georgia of course). Former Georgia QB Vandagriff threw for only 30 yards in his first game and was up to 252 in his previous game.
- SEC Rankings: Kentucky has the #3 total defense. Vandy has the #13 total
- SEC Rankings: UK has the #16 scoring offense and Vandy has the #5 scoring offense.
- SEC Rankings: UK is dead last in touchdowns scored and Vandy is 6th.
- SEC Rankings: Vandy is 13th in offensive yards and Kentucky is last.
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4EverGold: Agree D is legit. This is a tough game already and, in my mind, was always going to be toughest of the “key 3”… UK, S Carolina, and Auburn. Ironically, the win over Bama makes this game TOUGHER now in my opinion. We’ll have the same challenge of haze and emotional gap as Bama did initially against us after their big Georgia win… AND UK has had fresh bye week to recoup, recover, and plan
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Brain13:
We have to get to their QB. They allow sacks pretty regularly. This is on our DLine to get there and to at least alter the passes if they can't. Meanwhile can we scheme around their strengths on O without the luxury of an extra week?
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Chris Lee: Their defense is legit. Got a difference-making corner and a bunch of studs up front led by Deone Walker. It'll be the best defense they've played.
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KnoxvilleDore94: Pretty good receivers as well. Maclin and brown are both very good. Rbs lack that extra gear from what I've seen.
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fog_horn: I'm guessing Beck will install some new packages this week to offset UK's bye-week advantage of scouting us. I wish I know how much of Bama's inability to stop us was their confusion vs lack of preparation vs sloppy/lazy execution. Beating UK would be huge, and make me expect to win every remaining game on our schedule save for UTA.
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gvr5804: This game is going to be rough. Their defense is tops.
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MachoManVandy Savage1: I think it's all about us taking care of what we do. Our offense can score points.
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Brain13: A piece of me says if Bama can't stop it, why can they? And we should just keep our same approach. Pavia said in the bye week that the main thing stopping us before was ourselves in the form of dumb penalties that would get us behind the sticks. We cleaned that up, and you saw the results. Agree UK's D is legit, and it already stopped one Pavia-like QB in Dart, so we're in for some trouble. But as long as we keep it clean, we have so much momentum right now I expect us to score 25 points or more.
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Dtb4: About as bad a matchup as we will have in my opinion, under Texas and UT in that order. They will stop us at the line and we will have a lot of 2nd and 12s and 3rd and longs. They will score methodically and potentially quickly. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see this as being competitive for the match up alone, but timing is not ideal at all.
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VandyNashman: They've had two weeks to scheme and watched what we did against Bama. Beck / Kill have a heavy lift to replicate for Kentucky what they did versus Alabama. Hoping for the best.
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DansWillMakeYouDance: Offensively, it’s a bad match up. They are dang good on defense, and they’ve had two weeks to prepare. Defensively, it’s better because of Kentucky’s lack of consistency in the pass game. We can stop the run. Any decent passing offense gives us fits. I’ll say this and Vandagriff will look like a Heisman candidate on Saturday. I don’t have a good feeling about Saturday, but I do expect it to be close.
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MMVandySavage: From the tape I've watched on our offense - including the Bama game, even if you've scouted us to death, UK's best defensive players will still have to make split-second micro decisions that are really, really difficult when Pavia & Beck create options. He's been so good at improvising when things get cut off quickly. That 4th and 1 play is a perfect example - Bama reading it dead to rights but Pavia still throws an in stride TD. Same on that last drive - phenomenal play by Pavia when Bama had it called correctly. That TD to Kam Johnson was a masterpiece. That said, can't disagree, UK is absolutely legit on defense and they are not nearly as reckless on penalties as Bama. This game will be won or lost on 3rd down, any significant turnovers, and if we can score TDs in the redzone. The UK offense is gross though and if we put a complete game together on defense - this will be tight and go down to the wire.
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Pepperdore: UK seems like they will make things a lot harder on the offense, both by talent, system, and limiting dumb penalties, the last of which gifted us more than a few third down conversions against Bama. However, less might be required of the offense against Kentucky because while they have some elite receivers, I wouldn't say they pose a greater threat than Bama's offense. Our offense essentially had to be perfect against Bama. We fail to convert one of those drives (notwithstanding the pick 6 score) and we likely lose.
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TBGraham: If you want to talk about luck, UK vs Ole Miss was quite lucky with a fumble at the goal line bouncing right into their player’s hands for a TD. If we play defense like we did this week we will stop them. This will be a huge week for Lea. If we are focused, and I think we will be, this should be right down to the end and I like our intangibles
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Jc32vu: It’s crazy how things our perspective has flipped since fall camp. We went into the season thinking our defense was going to be good and offense bad.. and that has now flipped. I still think our defense has more to show, and can deploy a completely different strategy against Kentucky than vs Bama where we were just trying to stop the big play at all costs.
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DCCommodore1: If we beat UK and Ball St and Texas remains number 1….We could knock off two number 1s in the same month
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Godores1995: Also will be ranked if they go 2-0 in the coming weeks and probably game day on campus for texas but they have to win and not Georgia State this game
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VUWARS: Big If, considering our valleys are still quite deep. But the peaks have risen as well!
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wkudore: We dont have to knock off Kentucky and Ball St to beat two #1s in the same month. Only need for Texas not to lose and then beat them.
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Brain13: In my experience college teams play in waves of good then bad. We embed low at GSt and then found our way against Mizzou in the second half and for all of the Bama game. Maybe we can ride this wave a few more quarters.
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NashNative615: Kentucky plays a lot of zone coverage. mainly 3 and 4. They are very similar to Vandy when it comes to philosophy. They limit big plays and make you beat them by sustaining drives. They are in cover 3 (or some variation) 70% of the game against UGA. UgA couldn’t get anything deep and runs between the tackles were limited to less than 3 yards. They have a CJ Taylor type player in Zion Childress (#11). He will be their best weapon to blow up the mesh and option plays. I think it is really overblown people saying UK’s front 7 is better than Bamas. It’s not. They better plan to support their front than Bama and avoid 1v1 situations. Bama lives and dies by playing “our guy is better than yours”. It’s interesting watching UGA closer on review of their game with UK. I walk away thinking about UGA what I feel about Bama. Very vanilla. Uninspiring game plans. My theory is it’s the transfer portal and the inability to install full playbooks. The mercenary for hire era is equalizing the playing field.
UK’s offense is dreadful but it has some talent that could give VU challenges. Turnovers will be out there for the taking. Their transfer QB is one of the worst Vandy will play against. He is a lesser Drones from VTech, and is very inaccurate. Both teams will be playing ball control and milking the clock.
I have high confidence Kill/Beck will have cover 3 zone beaters on tap. A lot flood concepts where Pavia will roll out and Vandy will have short intermediate deep options stressing the zone. Georgia’s best drives (which were few and far between) involved play action and rolling out. Something Vandy does way better than Carson Beck. I would at a minimum bet Vandy to cover.
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DoreFan: What I know about UK: they are not remotely as good or as deep as Alabama.
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BreakOnThrough: I just don’t think Bama’s DC is very good. Ky will be very tough for us. Georgia State had us stopped most of the first half down there because they have a good coach.
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og706: Must beat UK. Or lose the national coverage and momentum. Huge game!!
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All n 4 Vandy: IMOO this game's more critical than last weekend's-
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J2M: They are all critical going forward. Still have to find three wins against a very tough schedule.
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side dore:
I've been watching some replays of Kentucky games. Defense is impressive. Offense is lost. Their interior Defensive lineman are first rounders. Defense can play with anyone. Our defense seemed to make Georgia State look good. All depends on which version of us comes out to play on Saturday.
- The Kentucky defense is for real.
- Arguably a better defense than Alabama.
- South Carolina Game was a bit of an outlier. South Carolina won 31-6 and only gained 252 yards. Kentcky only had 139 yards and threw 2 interceptions including a pick 6. 4 fumbles but didn't lose any.
- Kentucky offense really struggled the first few games (including against Georgia of course). Former Georgia QB Vandagriff threw for only 30 yards in his first game and was up to 252 in his previous game.
- SEC Rankings: Kentucky has the #3 total defense. Vandy has the #13 total
- SEC Rankings: UK has the #16 scoring offense and Vandy has the #5 scoring offense.
- SEC Rankings: UK is dead last in touchdowns scored and Vandy is 6th.
- SEC Rankings: Vandy is 13th in offensive yards and Kentucky is last.
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4EverGold: Agree D is legit. This is a tough game already and, in my mind, was always going to be toughest of the “key 3”… UK, S Carolina, and Auburn. Ironically, the win over Bama makes this game TOUGHER now in my opinion. We’ll have the same challenge of haze and emotional gap as Bama did initially against us after their big Georgia win… AND UK has had fresh bye week to recoup, recover, and plan
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Brain13:
We have to get to their QB. They allow sacks pretty regularly. This is on our DLine to get there and to at least alter the passes if they can't. Meanwhile can we scheme around their strengths on O without the luxury of an extra week?
