Tennessee Preparing for Kentucky to Play Two Quarterbacks

It’s unclear who will be the first player under center for Kentucky when the Wildcats travel to Knoxville Saturday night for a “dark mode” game at Neyland Stadium. It doesn’t matter if it’s Brock Vandagriff or Gavin Wimsatt, the charged atmosphere will be a challenge against a defense that’s ranked No. 4 in the country by SP+.

Coaches love to play coy when it comes to starting quarterbacks. Opposing coaches love to diminish its significance. Tennessee is going to prepare for both players, regardless of who starts first. Josh Heupel knows that whoever is in the game for the Wildcats will be tasked to run the football.

“I think defensively you always got to know who the No. 2 is and have a plan for him. It can be through injury or them playing multiple guys. Your defensive players need to understand what type of player that is. Certainly for them, the quarterback run game is always a part of it. Second half of last week, (Kentucky) played the younger kid. And for us, we got to do a great job of controlling the quarterback run game. That’s a huge part of it,” Heupel said on Monday.

He’s also well aware of how the Kentucky offense wants to play when it’s at its best. That hasn’t been the case over the last few weeks, but in a win at Ole Miss, the Cats controlled the ball and limited possessions, something they must do to have a shot in Knoxville.

“There’s limited opportunities, and I’m just talking about possessions during the course of the game. All three phases got to gotta play that well together,” said the Tennessee head coach. “For us, within the scope of what we’re doing schematically, play assignment sound. You got to rally, you got to go make tackles in space and certainly when it’s quarterback run game, your eyes, your keys got to take you to making those plays.”

Tennessee Coach Praises the Kentucky Front Seven

The overwhelming majority of people handicapping this game know the Wildcats will have their hands full, especially the way Kentucky has played defensively over the last three weeks. The once stout run defense has been gashed.

Heupel isn’t going to let his players fall for the rat poison. He wants his group to prepare like they’re playing one of the best defensive lines in college football.

“They got length, athleticism. They’ll play multiple fronts; three or four down, drop eight at a time. They play with great discipline, pattern-reading, and causing issues with windows. We gotta do a great job of recognizing their rotations, feeling the underneath coverage and you know, getting to the right spot at the right time with the ball,” said the Tennessee head coach.

The star of the Kentucky defensive front, Deone Walker, has not been at 100%. When he’s at his best, there aren’t many better than No. 0 in the Kentucky uniform.

“The difference in this league and everywhere else around the country, you’re gonna see elite players with great physical traits and athleticism. (Deone Walker) is a guy that is a dominant player. As they move him around in his front, he’s able to play within their scheme extremely well. Use his hands, he’s physical, he’s active, disruptive; he’s a really good football player. But their D-line in general has great size and plays extremely well with pad level.”