What we know heading into Kentucky vs. Eastern Kentucky

Week 2 has arrived in college football. In the Bluegrass, Kentucky will host a certain FCS in-state school for the third time since 2015. The Wildcats are hoping that the meeting this year with Eastern Kentucky is a game that has a little more cushion on the scoreboard.

Mark Stoops saw his teams play a pair of four-quarter games with the Colonels in 2015 and 2017. The former needed some fourth quarter and overtime heroics from Dorian Baker to escape disaster. Kentucky is hoping to avoid a similar fate on Saturday afternoon.

Former Kentucky quality control assistant Walt Wells is now in year three running the program in Richmond and has a team with playoff aspirations despite a horrid performance in Week 1. The pregame talk is almost over.

Let’s take one final look back at this week to see what we learned about the upcoming matchup.

Kentucky has execution details to correct

Kentucky played hard and with an edge in the Week 1 victory against Ball State. That was good to see after Mark Stoops publicly addressed his team’s lack of edge multiple times last season. However, the 30-point win wasn’t very pretty.

Both the head coach and offensive coordinator Liam Coen were proud of the team’s effort in the Week 1 win, but some execution details need to be corrected.

“Our guys played physical on both sides of the ball. Mentally, they were ready to play. What we did not play was very clean…. It’s a fundamental game. We played hard, we played physical, we were not always fundamentally sound, and that will bite us eventually,” Stoops said.

“It was frustrating, and there were some things in there that we have to get cleaned up.”

Most notably, the offense has things to get corrected. Reports indicate that Kentucky had some physical and intense practices this week. The Wildcats are hoping that will make them sharper on game day. Only time will tell if that plays out of the field, but this team has a clear goal this week.

The Wildcats want to play cleaner.

Eastern Kentucky has major problems on defense

Kentucky has issues to iron out on offense. On paper, this is a good matchup to get things fixed. Eastern Kentucky was very bad on defense in 2022 and is expected to be bad in 2023. That played out in a Week 1 loss to Cincinnati where Scott Satterfield‘s offense rolled up 5.5 points per drive and 9.4 yards per play.

The Colonels ranked No. 101 in the FCS in scoring defense (35.2) and No. 117 in yards per rush (5.6) last season. Defensive coordinator Jake Johnson’s 3-4 scheme has some major issues. This should be a get-right game for the Wildcats.

Kentucky should put some big numbers on the Kroger Field scoreboards on Saturday afternoon.

Parker McKinney can play

Eastern Kentucky quarterback Parker McKinney is back in Richmond for his super senior season, and the Tennessee native is already one of the best Colonels in program history. McKinney has accumulated 9,895 passing yards (7.5 yards per attempt, 62.6% completion rate), 95 total touchdowns (5 pass, 20 rush), 34 interceptions, and 1,431 rushing yards during his collegiate career. The veteran is one of the biggest stars in the FCS.

The star quarterback has Kentucky’s attention.

“That team has a lot of good players, starting with McKinney. That quarterback is special,” Mark Stoops told reporters this week. “He’s much like Devin [Leary]. He can elude pressure and make good throws. That gets aggravating.”

Ball State posted 7.4 yards per attempt in 30 throws against the Wildcats. At times, players were from running free through large spaces of grass. McKinney can hurt Kentucky big time if the secondary has some busts.

Kentucky’s pass defense will need to tighten the screws on Saturday.