Cats look for Another Bounce Back from a Baton Rouge Debacle

The Cats ran into one of these last Saturday in Death Valley. It was mid-October, 2006, and a young(ish) blogger was intent on watching his beloved Kentucky football Wildcats take on the mighty LSU Tigers in Death Valley.  As some of you recall, 2006 was a simpler time in the landscape of college sports media.  The SEC Network did not yet exist, and there were many Saturdays in which the Cats were not available on television.  The Kentucky - LSU game was scheduled to be one such contest. However, at the last minute, the game was made available on a pay-per-view basis on-line. I can say with reasonable confidence that I was the only person in the state who elected to fork over the $12.00 necessary to purchase it. Distrustful of my internet speed at home for such an important event, I made a late night trek through the rain-soaked streets of Hopkinsville to view the game by myself in my office.  (Is it just me, or does this story sound more like a mission to purchase meth that to watch a middling football team?)  To further demonstrate the very depths of my football depravity, there was no real broadcast to speak of.  What was available for my viewing pleasure was simply the feed from the "Tigervision" scoreboard.  This entailed one camera, which appeared to have been located somewhere in the stratosphere above Tiger Stadium.  To make matters worse, the Cats lost to future NFL bust and cough medicine aficionado Jamarcus Russell and his Bayou Bengals by the score of 49-0, in a game not nearly as competitive as the final score would indicate. I watched every second, and strongly considered checking immediately into some sort of football rehab facility following the final horn. So why tell this tale of woe in the midst of this generally upbeat season of Kentucky football?  First, because I have to write something,and that was as good as anything I could come up with.  Secondly, because that game, and what happened in its aftermath, provides tangible proof that there is the possibility of redemption in the wake of the most brutal of defeats. When the 2006 Kentucky Wildcats fell to LSU 49-0, optimism was not high in the Bluegrass for the remainder of the season. In fact, there was as little buzz about Kentucky football as I can remember. The Wildcats, who had won only 9 games in Rich Brooks' first 3 season, sat 3-4, and public opinion trended heavily toward the ouster of the veteran coach at season's end.  But led by emerging star players like Andre' Woodson, Rafael Little and Keenan Burton, Kentucky reeled off 5 of their next 6, to include a win over Georgia, and the Music City Bowl victory over Clemson.  This turnaround jump started the most successful era of modern football at Kentucky.  The opponent that got that ball rolling?  The Mississippi State Bulldogs.  Kentucky traveled to Starkville, one of the most happening towns in all of Oktibbeha County, and beat the Bulldogs by a score of 34-31.  On Saturday, the Cats have another opportunity to follow a nightmare performance in Death Valley with a season changing win against the Bulldogs. Dicky Lyons with one of the greatest catches in Kentucky history during the 2006 Kentucky - MSU contest. Admittedly, the 2014 Bulldogs present a decidedly tougher challenge to the Cats than their 2006 counterparts.  Mississippi State is undefeated, ranked number one in the nation, and features likely Heisman front-runner Dak Prescott.  They have the second longest active winning streak in college football at 9. The Bulldogs lead the SEC in total offense at 530 yards per game, and average nearly 42 points per contest.  The 2006 Bulldog team, on the other hand, finished 3-9, and even though I attended the game in Starkville, I could not pick one player from that team out of a lineup if my life depended on it.  But though the opponent is much more formidable, Kentucky can win this game. Kentucky has three wins over number one teams in its history, the most recent being the 2007 victory over  future national champion LSU.  I would argue that the talent disparity between Kentucky and LSU on that glorious night in 2007 was significantly greater than Saturday's match-up with the Bulldogs.  Mississippi State is a terrific team, but they are not stocked with NFL talent like the Tigers were in 2007.  Mississippi State also has some tangible weaknesses, even if it takes some diligent searching to find them.  The Bulldogs rank second to last in the conference in pass defense and dead last in total defense.  If the offensive line can keep Patrick Towles upright, the Bulldogs can be vulnerable to the Wildcats' passing attack. Playing at home, with the build-up of a 3:30 start, and a packed house in full "blue-out" mode, the Cats can once again use a win over the Bulldogs to springboard from a painful loss to a program-changing season.  But with such a dynamic opponent, and in the wake of the deflating effort of last week, the Cats will need Commonwealth to be a hostile environment to the visiting Bulldogs on Saturday. We need to make that happen as a fanbase. With the CBS national telecast, and the SEC Network pregame, Kentucky's football environment will be showcased on Saturday.  College football fans, and most importantly recruits, will be tuning in to decide what Kentucky football is all about. Let's show them.