{"id":231364,"date":"2025-10-17T11:15:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T11:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/231364\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T11:15:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T11:15:09","slug":"what-theyre-saying-in-texas-about-kentucky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/231364\/","title":{"rendered":"What They’re Saying In Texas About Kentucky"},"content":{"rendered":"

The eyes of Texas are on Kentucky. The Longhorns are traveling to Lexington for the first time in program history on Saturday. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important for us to understand the magnitude of this game,\u201d head coach Steve Sarkisian<\/a> said on Wednesday\u2019s SEC Teleconference. \u201cBeing on the road at night in the SEC, against a very dangerous Kentucky team, I have a ton of respect for Coach Stoops, his staff, his team. But this is this very important game in the in the grand scheme of things for our season, it\u2019s going to take an effort in all three phases to try to get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n

While you may scoff at that statement, Sark has looked to history to emphasize the significance of this matchup with Kentucky. A year ago, a loss to the Cats seemingly knocked Ole Miss out of the CFP picture. He\u2019s been reminding his Texas team<\/a> that they could suffer a similar fate if they\u2019re not ready to play. <\/p>\n

Even though that was a different team, the Texas head coach believes the Wildcats have a quality rushing attack that can knife through the Horns\u2019 defense. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne, their ability to run the football and possess the ball. They\u2019re a big, physical front, got two good runners, and you got to really fight to not let them control the game that way and shrink the game. And then two, they have speed on the perimeter, so if you commit too much to the run game, they can take their shots on you,\u201d said Sarkisian. <\/p>\n

That was the script for Florida<\/a> in the Horns\u2019 worst loss of the season. The Gators ran for 159 yards, almost twice as many as any other opponent this year, and it opened the door for Florida to connect on chunk plays in the passing game. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t play well early and handle your business, they can start shrinking the game on you,\u201d said the Texas head coach. <\/p>\n

Candid Analysis of Kentucky<\/p>\n

That was the Coach-Speak analysis of Kentucky. An outside observer has combed through the tape and provided some hard truths for Kentucky fans. <\/p>\n

Paul Wadlington of Inside Texas<\/a> does a deep dive on each upcoming opponent. Sometimes, we can get tunnel vision inside our Kentucky bubble. Wadlington made a few key points that are striking. <\/p>\n

On the passing game: \u201cThey\u2019ve committed to 6-5, 220-pound Cutter Boley at QB after bringing in Zach Calzada this offseason. I have no idea why they didn\u2019t bring in a dual-threat QB and double down on their OL gains, but \u2018Because Mark Stoops\u2019 is the best and most succinct answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Stoops is married to the pro-style system, even though his best teams have had quarterbacks who can do almost as much damage with their legs as their arms. However, that wasn\u2019t the grandest indictment of what has happened in Lexington recently. <\/p>\n

This is a \u201ctypical Kentucky defense\u201d that forces opponents to be methodical. That\u2019s not always a good thing. <\/p>\n

\u201cStoops has grown schematically stale,\u201d writes Wadlington, \u201cbut maybe they\u2019ll try to throw some wrinkles at Texas. What do they have to lose?\u201d<\/p>\n

One last thing, and it\u2019s the most amusing yet: \u201cStoops is the kind of guy who will punt on the opponent 43 on 4th and 4 and kick a field goal on 4th and goal from the 2 yard line down a touchdown.\u201c<\/p>\n

Obviously, this Texas scouter is not an omniscient observer; however, this enlightening analysis helps explain why this Kentucky football team is stuck in the proverbial mud. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The eyes of Texas are on Kentucky. The Longhorns are traveling to Lexington for the first time in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-231364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}