{"id":437295,"date":"2026-09-16T03:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T03:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/437295\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T03:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T03:12:10","slug":"preview-kentucky-to-take-on-no-9-texas-am-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/437295\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: Kentucky to take on No. 9 Texas A&M Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"

UK massive underdog as it heads to No. 9 Texas A&M this weekend<\/p>\n

\"MatthewCOLLEGE STATION, Texas \u2014<\/p>\n

Kentucky football will face another tough challenge on Saturday when they head to Kyle Field to take on No. 9 Texas A&M, coming off a crushing loss to No. 10 Alabama in their SEC opener last weekend.<\/p>\n

Kentucky led Alabama at the half 17-13, and an upset seemed possible for the Wildcats. But they were shut out in the second half by Alabama, which scored 32 unanswered points to win 45-17.<\/p>\n

Now, Kentucky is a massive underdog as it takes on its next SEC opponent. The Aggies are 16.5-point favorites for Saturday’s game.<\/p>\n

While the Aggies are ranked ahead of Alabama in the AP poll, Kentucky’s defense may have an easier time containing the Texas A&M offense. The Aggies rank 86th in total offense, with an average of 380 yards per game and 10 touchdowns across their first two games.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats aren’t far behind, sitting at 100th in total offense. A big question for UK will be how Stein and the O-Line going to adjust after getting slammed against Bama. Quarterback Kenny Minchey was sacked four times, but despite that, Kentucky still ranks ahead of Texas A&M in passing offense.<\/p>\n

It also wasn’t pretty for the Wildcats’ ground game against Alabama, totaling 63 yards on the ground. The offensive line adjustment for UK could be a game changer, getting Minchey more time in the pocket and creating holes for running backs to slip through.<\/p>\n

But Texas A&M’s defense won’t be rolling over for UK. The Aggie D is ranked 16th overall, holding teams to an average of 218 yards per game and only giving up two touchdowns in its first two games. <\/p>\n

The Kentucky defense carried the Wildcats in the first half against Alabama, coming up with a pick-six for the first score of the game. However, UK’s ability to defend the pass showed a major hole. UK’s passing defense ranks 85th, allowing 10.85 yards per completion.<\/p>\n

Texas A&M sits at 83rd in passing offense, but the Aggies are averaging 10.8 yards per completion. Pending UK’s defense making some major improvements from last week, this could be where Texas A&M exploits Kentucky.<\/p>\n

Kentucky and Texas A&M kick off at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. The game will air on ESPN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UK massive underdog as it heads to No. 9 Texas A&M this weekend COLLEGE STATION, Texas \u2014 Kentucky…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-437295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}