Preview

Alright, we are on the back end of what is going to be a three post day. Is it a bad sign that watching the Stevie Johnson video and typing a post about Will Fidler almost brought me to tears? Not to go all The Sports Guy or Clay Travis on you, but is is possible that I care too much about this team and have lost all perspective? Perhaps. But if there was ever a day to get lost in the depths of UK Football, this is it.

We've gone over why this is such a big game, so we won't belabor it. But one thing bears repeating. I hate Lane Kiffin.

Now lets talk about the game. My assessment of UT starts with their quarterback Jonathan Crompton. Somehow, this kid spent 3 1/2 years of a lousy career as a caterpillar and became a butterfly in the middle of this year. Through 3 games, Crompton had thrown 7 interceptions. Having seen his collapse against UCLA in the last of these three game, and chatting up the locals in Knoxville bars for two nights that weekend, I reported then that no player in college football inspired as much hatred from his own fans as this guy. It was brutal.

A lightbulb then went off for Crompton and he has been a different player. He leads the SEC in touchdown passes with 25, and has thrown only 4 picks in the last 8 games. Weird. The Cats need to find a way to get some pressure on him and get a pick early. This kid will get rattled. At his core he is still a kicked puppy. He'll revert to form if given provocation. At this point it bears mention that UT has not won a road game this year. The crowd needs to give Crompton all the noise it can.

With that said, the key to stopping UT may be stopping Monterio Hardesty. A look at his statistics shows that he has had some good games and some pedestrian games. We know that UK's defense has had some success and some striking failure against the run this year. If Hardesty runs us ragged, it will be very tough to win this game.

Looking at UT's recent results, one game sticks out, a 42-17 beatdown administered by Ole Miss. The Rebels success that day had little to do with Jevan Snead, in fact he had a poor game. UT got blown out because Dexter McCluster went bananas. The Rebs WR turned All-SEC caliber running back went for 282 yards on 25 carries with 4 TDs. The key for us tonight, as always, is Cobb-Locke, Locke-Cobb and the big guys up front. These guys need to get it done. Monte Kiffin will have the UT defense in a position to shut us down. It is going to come down to execution and special athletes making special plays. (I've said that a lot recently).

I think to win we will need to open the playbook up a little. I'd like to see Cobb get a couple of throws out of the Wildcat, and Newton get to take some shots downfield. We'll see about that.

Finally, we need to have a big start. We often start slowly in big games, most disappointingly against Vandy in 2008. I don't see how the Cats won't be ready to play tonight, but the key will be channelling the emotion in a positive way. I doesn't always happen like it should. Tonight, I think we will rise to the occasion.

No prediction here. We'll see how it all shakes out.

I'll be in the Orange Lot, finishing up just in time to honor our seniors. Have fun. Go Cats.