Kentucky by 6....27-21

It is generally a pleasure to read predictions on football games by many of the posters on Bluegrass Preps. This is a knowledgeable bunch, and for the most part prognosticators see it as a close game. When picking a close game, many of us tend to lead with our hearts, not with our heads. I suppose I fit into that group also. Two years ago in Nashville Kentucky won a close game, but Western had a statistical edge. Ironically, neither team could consistently complete a pass. Last year at Lexington Western won in overtime on a trick play.

 

Western lost most of our defensive line from last year's team. One in particular, Quanteras Smith, will be hard to replace. It looks like he is going to stick in the NFL. Kentucky lost most of their defensive backfield last year, but that may not be difficult to replace. Western features a top-flight running back in Antonio Andrews, and Ace Wales, the third leading rusher in Kentucky high school football history from Central high school in Louisville, played very well in summer camp and brings much-needed speed to the Topper offense. Kentucky will rely primarily on Sanders, who did not play in the Western game last year.

 

It is said that Kentucky will go with two quarterbacks. Neither quarterback, in my opinion, is as good as Smith was last year, before his injury. Western graduated quarterback Kaiwan Jakes, who provided much needed leadership. However, Brandon Doughty will start and is a much more accurate passer. In the last two weeks Demarcus Smith has made remarkable strides, and he is now running second string and taking some snaps with the ones.

 

Both teams will rely on freshmen at wide receiver. Nobody wants to rely on freshmen for the first game of the season, but it is possible that the freshmen receivers on both teams are on the cusp of remarkable careers.

 

I feel certain that Western fans would not trade our O line for Kentucky's, and vice versa. Western's defensive backfield should be considerably better than Kentucky's, and Kentucky's defensive line should be considerably better than Western's. Both teams suffered losses at linebacker, but return a stellar linebacker.

 

The talent as somewhat similar. I am picking Western for two reasons: First, as I said, my heart. Second, most reasonable football people would pick Petrino over a coach going into his first head coaching assignment of his career. I do believe that Coach Stoops will have a long career in Lexington, but at this point I have more faith in Coach Petrino.

 

One other point: I believe that most Western fans are grateful that Kentucky entered into this series with us. The Cats really had nothing to win, and everything to lose. We were just coming into Division I football although we had a marvelous Division II history, including a national title. If Kentucky beat us, those that criticize Kentucky would pass it off as just defeating a team beginning to play Division I ball. On the other hand, when Western won, Kentucky critics could mock them by talking that they "couldn't even beat Western". Again, thanks for playing us and hopefully someday we can renew the series. Good luck on the rest of your season, Kentucky.

Tops in a close one, and we have our first "Fire Stoops" thread of the new era.

 

There we go with stirring the pot. (and I resemble that remark). lol

I am going to pick U.K. in a very close one although it would not surprise me one bit to see WKU go out of Nashville with a win in this one. Stoops has had very promising recruiting but remember that his best players will be those freshmen playing in their first ever college football game. A good class added to absolutely nothing.

I too think this will be a high scoring game.

 

Something tells me the Cats will find away to take this one.

 

UK 47

WKU 46

Im going to take UK by 35 and Bobby Petrino leaves after the game for Central Michigan job.

WKU 35-17. With the final TD by WKU being scored after a timeout on the one yard line with less than 10 seconds to go.

It is generally a pleasure to read predictions on football games by many of the posters on Bluegrass Preps. This is a knowledgeable bunch, and for the most part prognosticators see it as a close game. When picking a close game, many of us tend to lead with our hearts, not with our heads. I suppose I fit into that group also. Two years ago in Nashville Kentucky won a close game, but Western had a statistical edge. Ironically, neither team could consistently complete a pass. Last year at Lexington Western won in overtime on a trick play.

 

Western lost most of our defensive line from last year's team. One in particular, Quanteras Smith, will be hard to replace. It looks like he is going to stick in the NFL. Kentucky lost most of their defensive backfield last year, but that may not be difficult to replace. Western features a top-flight running back in Antonio Andrews, and Ace Wales, the third leading rusher in Kentucky high school football history from Central high school in Louisville, played very well in summer camp and brings much-needed speed to the Topper offense. Kentucky will rely primarily on Sanders, who did not play in the Western game last year.

 

It is said that Kentucky will go with two quarterbacks. Neither quarterback, in my opinion, is as good as Smith was last year, before his injury. Western graduated quarterback Kaiwan Jakes, who provided much needed leadership. However, Brandon Doughty will start and is a much more accurate passer. In the last two weeks Demarcus Smith has made remarkable strides, and he is now running second string and taking some snaps with the ones.

 

Both teams will rely on freshmen at wide receiver. Nobody wants to rely on freshmen for the first game of the season, but it is possible that the freshmen receivers on both teams are on the cusp of remarkable careers.

 

I feel certain that Western fans would not trade our O line for Kentucky's, and vice versa. Western's defensive backfield should be considerably better than Kentucky's, and Kentucky's defensive line should be considerably better than Western's. Both teams suffered losses at linebacker, but return a stellar linebacker.

 

The talent as somewhat similar. I am picking Western for two reasons: First, as I said, my heart. Second, most reasonable football people would pick Petrino over a coach going into his first head coaching assignment of his career. I do believe that Coach Stoops will have a long career in Lexington, but at this point I have more faith in Coach Petrino.

 

One other point: I believe that most Western fans are grateful that Kentucky entered into this series with us. The Cats really had nothing to win, and everything to lose. We were just coming into Division I football although we had a marvelous Division II history, including a national title. If Kentucky beat us, those that criticize Kentucky would pass it off as just defeating a team beginning to play Division I ball. On the other hand, when Western won, Kentucky critics could mock them by talking that they "couldn't even beat Western". Again, thanks for playing us and hopefully someday we can renew the series. Good luck on the rest of your season, Kentucky.

Great post.

27-24 Kentucky.

Petrino is a veteran coach and will get the job done. If UK fails to win this one it will be interesting to see how those big commits take it. I'm really curious to see if Stoops can keep the recruits interested if UK only wins 2/3 games this year.

Petrino is a veteran coach and will get the job done. If UK fails to win this one it will be interesting to see how those big commits take it. I'm really curious to see if Stoops can keep the recruits interested if UK only wins 2/3 games this year.

 

I'd say most of the recruits understand that this years team consists of very few Stoops recruits.

 

I don't think they will lose any recruits, if any even with a bad season.

I'd say most of the recruits understand that this years team consists of very few Stoops recruits.

 

I don't think they will lose any recruits, if any even with a bad season.

 

I agree that they understand that, however, I also think they want to see that this coaching staff can improve this team. I think UK needs to win somewhere between 4 and 6 games this year to keep all the kids they have in tact. They won't lose all of them with a 2 or 3 win season but they will definitely lose some of those commits if they only win 2 or 3.

 

I agree that they understand that, however, I also think they want to see that this coaching staff can improve this team. I think UK needs to win somewhere between 4 and 6 games this year to keep all the kids they have in tact. They won't lose all of them with a 2 or 3 win season but they will definitely lose some of those commits if they only win 2 or 3.

 

I don't see it as much as wins and losses rather than this team being competitive. They were horrible last year and wasn't in a lot of games. If they show competitiveness then that's improvement right now.

Looks like UK will be without CB Cody Quinn, who was listed number 1 on depth chart. Apparently he has a high ankle sprain.

 

Read on KSR that it'll most likely be Hytche, Willis, and someone else can't remember his name.

 

That's on inexperienced secondary.

Cats win 33-24