UK/Eastern Kentucky preview
By Staff
COMMONWEALTH STADIUM, LEXINGTON
1 PM EST – ESPN 360
EASTERN KENTUCKY COLONELS (5-2)
SERIES HISTORY: UK LEADS 2-0
RECENT MEETINGS:
2007: UK 50 EKU 10
It seems that we say this about every single UK football game but the football Wildcats are at a crossroads ….. blah blah blah. Bottom line, UK is hurting bad after letting Mississippi State creep out of Lexington with a win in UK’s last “crossroads game”. The EKU colonels are an up and rising team and have improved tremendously over the team UK dismantled 50-10 in 2007 and the fact that UK has flu/injury problems have some EKU bloggers hopeful/UK fans dismayed about the prospect of FCS EKU pulling an Appalachian State/Michigan or a LeMoyne/Syracuse style upset. Yea, I really don’t get the level some UK fans think UK has sunk to either, but let’s look at the Colonels.
OFFENSE
The Colonels start a freshman as well, redshirt freshman TJ Pryor. Much like Newton, he is another in the breed of the dual threat QB’s that is all the rage in college football. For the season, Pryor has 1590 yards passing with 4 TD’s and 5 INT’s and has 193 yards rushing and 4 rushing TD’s. Pryor completes almost 62% of his passes. Cody Watts is the Colonels version of Randall Cobb as a dual WR/QB. Watts is 15-27 on the year for 211 yards and has one touchdown and one pick. Watts is not much of a threat to run though with just 24 yards on 26 carries.
Senior CJ Walker is the biggest rushing threat for EKU, with 516 yards and 7 rushing TD’s. He is averaging just 3.8 yards per carry and against EKU’s biggest opponent this year, Indiana, he had just 25 yards on 12 carries. Pryor is the next biggest rushing threat. Bruce Frieson has been getting more carries lately but he does average 4.9 yards a carry. HB Banjoman, owner of one of the worst names in college football, but strangely appropriate for EKU is good for 5.1 yards a carry. Despite all the options thay have to carry the ball, EKU averages about 125 yards a game on the ground.
Garnett Phelps is the main receiving threat for the Colonels and he has 48 receptions for 610 yards on the season. He has had a few big games this year, with 15 catches vs Austin Peay and 3 100 yard games on the season. Phelps, who is 5’10, gets to be the sacrificial lamb for Trevard Lindley’s return (hopefully) to the lineup. After Phelps, the aforementioned Cody Watts has 324 yards receiving but has yet to cross the goal line yet this year. Shannon Davis appears to be the deep threat, averaging 20 yards on 16 receptions.
DEFENSE
Eastern seems to have a pretty stingy defense primarily FCS teams giving up just 18 points a game. The Indiana offense managed just 19 points so this appears to be pretty solid defense. MLB Jordan Dalrymple is the Colonel’s best player with 64 tackles, 8 of them for a loss and 3.5 sacks. Jordan is also pretty good in pass coverage with 6 INT’s and a pretty hard hitter with 2 forced fumbles. DT Andrew Soucy has 9.5 tackles for a loss and the stat that stands out is that he has FIVE BLOCKED KICKS on the season. That and the fact that he is a spitting image of Tony Soprano should give UK’s special teams a cause for concern. Jeremy Caldwell is the EKU version of Trevard Lindley and is always a threat when he returns kicks.
OUTLOOK
You have to give Eastern Kentucky credit. They have done a nice job putting together a pretty solid FCS team, going 13-7 over the last two seasons, winning the Ohio Valley Conference last season and advancing to the FCS playoffs. But even with UK ailing and having injury problems, this should not be a close game. Simply put, UK is a SEC team, and EKU is Division II. Sorry to be harsh, but an upset is not going to happen.
This will be a “feel good” game for UK and Morgan Newton has to develop chemistry with his receivers. As I have said the last couple of weeks, we need about 200-250 yards from the passing game. Even with Derrick Locke out, look for big games from Alfonso Smith, Moncell Allen and the Terminator John Connor on the ground.
This was supposed to be the game that made UK bowl eligible, but instead it will be a game where UK vents the frustrations of a “lost opportunities” season with a 35-7 victory.
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