Kentucky is ready for rivalry football against Tennessee

Tennessee owns the long-running football series with Kentucky. There is no denying that. The Vols own a commanding 83-26-9 series lead and are 8-2 against the Wildcats since Mark Stoops arrived in Lexington. In the last two meetings in Lexington, the Wildcats have lost a one-possession game after failing to go win the game on offense in the final drive of the game.

Offensive coordinator Liam Coen saw his last Kentucky offense score 42 yards and roll up 612 offensive yards only to lose by three. The Wildcats know that they must start winning more games in this series for this to become a rivalry that truly registers in the SEC.

“It’s on us to go out there and take something. And go take it. They’ve obviously had the upper hand in the last couple games. We’ve gotta come out and prove that we can beat these guys,” Coen told reporters on Tuesday. “That we can beat Tennessee. That we can play to our standard.”

“We’ve gotta win some of these to make it a true rivalry.”

Veterans like super senior offensive guard Kenneth Horsey have had both good and bad chapters in this rivalry series. The Central Florida native was on the UK team that ended a very long losing streak in Neyland Stadium back in 2020. Horsey was also on the 2021 team that suffered a brutal home loss to the Vols. At the Joe Craft Football Training Facility, Horsey and other leaders of the team are making sure some of the newcomers to the program understand what they will be stepping into on Saturday night at Kroger Field.

“It means a lot. A lot of these guys don’t really understand it being around only a couple of years, but I’ve been able to see and see from the fans and gain experience. I was on the last team that went out to Neyland and beat them in Tennessee. It’s getting the guys to understand that it’s just not an ordinary game. This already an exceptional team but now this is an exceptional team that does not like us a lot. And we’re a team that does not like Tennessee,” Horsey said. “That’s not a crazy thing to say. I feel like we understand it’s a rivalry.”

“It’s going to be about who wants it more.”

Kentucky knows what is at stake in Week 9. Rivalry football is coming to Kroger Field at night under the lights. Expect an emotional football game filled with highs and lows. The winner could be primed to go on a big run in November.

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Working the throw game

On Monday, Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops addressed the current status of Kentucky’s passing game. Things are not going well in the throw game, but the Wildcats are not ready to break off a commitment. Stoops and offensive Liam Coen are married to this Kyle Shanahan/Sean McVay scheme and are going to work through the growing pains to get the passing game fixed in Lexington.

Over the bye week, Kentucky’s offense spent a lot of time on making improvements in the passing game.

“We threw the football a lot. Pass protection, communication is something we worked on every single day against our defense. Good on good. We had a whole period that was just 16 plays of third downs,” Coen told reporters. “We just tried to rep it and give us as many tough looks as we can get from our defense to force us to communicate at a high level from a protection standpoint.”

Kentucky spent time in the off week attempt to make some real improvements in the passing game. The offense has had some ugly moments through the first seven weeks due mostly to an ineffective passing game. The Wildcats more efficient player from the throw game to get some wins down the stretch. Fixing this is simple in theory but may not as much in practice. The Wildcats need to win and finish.

“We gotta win on the perimeter,” said Coen. “Throw and catch.”

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Kentucky does not worry too much about sign-stealing

The latest scandal surrounding Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan football program is currently the No. 1 story in college football right now. Staffer Connor Stallions was buying tickets to games of opponents and possible future opponents to film signs and steal them. A long paper trail is being formed and now folks are attempting to uncover just how big of a deal this is.

On Tuesday evening, Liam Coen was asked about the scandal and if Kentucky worries about sign pilfering. Kentucky’s offensive coordinator joked that stealing signs is nothing that even comes into the realm of possibility for the Wildcats.

“We don’t have enough manpower to do that. We don’t have enough people to say go do that,” said Coen. “It doesn’t really cross our minds.”

The Kentucky staff understands that sign stealing is part of the game. Using both the TV and all-22 copy, signs can be picked up on. If a staffer leaves one school to go to another, there will be first-hand knowledge that can be useful on game day. Kentucky is aware of all those factors and is ready to adjust if required.

“You try to go look at the TV copy, you try to go look at the tape. What signals have we put on tape that they can see that we may need to alter and change,” Coen said. “In terms of sending the play in, I don’t worry about that too much.”

Coen did allude to the NFL having an earpiece in the helmet that would allow coaches to relay play calls that way. The offensive coordinator would prefer if college football operated that way. A move to that would help Kentucky’s operation.

“That’s something that would help in terms of being able to get it in and out quicker. We’ve gotta play faster, we gotta get the call, he’s gotta be able to read that thing,” Coen told KSR. “There’s still playing with tempo from the huddle and that’s something we would obviously love to improve on.”

There will be no move to helmet technology yet, but Kentucky did work on becoming more efficient from a play-calling standpoint.