It’s really not quite as exciting as it sounds, but get ready because here is “The Edge” for week two against the Hilltoppers of Western Kentucky University. This one will be just as lopsided as the first.
QUARTERBACK
After a good performance against Louisville, Mike Hartline is going to take the cake pretty easily over his competition this week. Hartline showed he has the ability to hit the open receiver, get rid of the ball before taking a sack, and avoiding turnovers. Western’s Kawaun Jakes had a forgettable performance against Nebraska and will hope to have a better performance against the Cats. This one is pretty easy to call.
Edge: KENTUCKY
RUNNINGBACK
It’s hard not to just say Derrick Locke is the easy winner and move on, but WKU starter Bobby Rainey deserves a little respect here. Racking up 155 yards on 30 carries for a 5.2 yard average is respectable, and that’s before you consider that this was against Bo Pelini’s Nebraska defense playing at home. Then add his 3 catches for 36 yards and he had a pretty damn good game. But, then again, Locke is one of the most all-around explosive players in the country and one of the top backs in the best conference in football. Add in the depth Donald Russell Provides and it makes calling this one even easier.
Edge: KENTUCKY
WIDE RECEIVER/ TIGHT END
Kentucky had three guys step up and grab 3 balls for at least 45 yards apiece and had starting tight end Jordan Aumiller snag 2 catches for 23 yards. WKU’s top receiver outside of Rainey was their tight end Jack Doyle, who grabbed 2 passes for 24 yards. Factor in all the things Randall Cobb does well outside of just receiving, then add King, Matthews and Roark against Western’s group and the Wildcats come out pretty far ahead. Even if I give the tight end advantage to WKU because of the one extra yard Doyle got, the overwhelming talent gap at receiver is too much for the Hilltoppers to overcome.
Edge: KENTUCKY
OFFENSIVE LINE
The easiest indicator for the offensive line performances would be sacks allowed and total offense. The Hilltopper unit allowed one sack against Nebraska, and allowed the offense to rush for 179 rushing yards and 120 passing yards. The Wildcat unit gave up zero sacks and allowed the offense to rack up 230 yards rushing and 236 yards passing. Then you look at the size, strength, and talent of each unit and Kentucky widens it’s margin over a surprisingly big Western unit. Stuart Hines, Larry Warford and the rest are too much for the Toppers.
Edge: KENTUCKY
DEFENSIVE LINE
The Kentucky defensive line struggled to get to the quarterback consistently against Louisville and ended up with only two sacks. They did provide some pressure though and forced the Cardinals into several penalties in addition to an interception and a forced fumble. The Hilltoppers’ defensive line did an admirable job while over matched against Nebraska and managed to notch a sack, but couldn’t get the pressure necessary to force the offense into a single turnover. Western’s group is terribly undersized and doesn’t have a single player on the level of Ricky Lumpkin or DeQuin Evans.
Edge: KENTUCKY
LINEBACKERS
Here’s where it starts to get a little interesting. Western has two pretty decent linebackers in senior Thomas Majors and junior Orlando Misaalefua that both played well against Nebraska. Neither are really as undersized as you might expect for a Sun Belt team and they can both run well. But then you have to look at Danny Trevathan and his performance that earned him the SEC defensive player of the week award and you realize that he’s talented enough to take this one by himself. As good as Majors and Misaalefua are, neither would probably start at Kentucky over the talented guys the Wildcats have assembled over the past few classes.
Edge: KENTUCKY
DEFENSIVE BACKS
The Kentucky defensive backfield was able to lock down the Louisville receivers and also helped step up and support the run. The unit as a whole held Louisville to 127 yards passing and allowed only 4.4 yards per attempt. Randall Burden and Martavius Neloms both showed flashes of the skills that they will need to contain some of the country’s best receivers when conference play begins. Safties Mychal Bailey and Winston Guy played both the roles of defensive centerfielders and of bone jarring hitters. The Western defensive backs allowed Nebraska to rack up 247 yards through the air and once again, don’t really have a player that would see the field much if they were playing for Kentucky.
Edge: KENTUCKY
SPECIAL TEAMS
The Wildcats got a less than stellar kicking performance from junior Ryan Tydlacka as he missed a PAT and a field goal. However, he did manage to punt for an impressive average of 49.8 yards per kick. Western kicker Casey Tinius hit on his only attempted field goal and his only attempted PAT. Punter Hendrix Brakefield had a busy day and was able to average 37.1 yards on 8 punts. It would be tough not to beat Randall Cobb’s only punt return on Saturday (-8 yards), but the combo of Locke and Cobb were able to average 27.3 yards per kickoff return. Western’s Willie Neal was able to return two punts for 10 yards, and also averaged 22 yards per return on kickoffs. Let’s just be real here. Most teams in the country would love to have Cobb and Locker returning kicks for them, and Tydlacka clearly out-punted the competition. Even without a dependable kicking option, this one was easy too.
Edge: KENTUCKY
COACH
Willie Taggart will eventually get things turned around at Western Kentucky, but he’s not there yet. Joker has been running his offensive system with this team for years and he retained most of the defensive staff after Brooks retired. We forget that Joker was a highly sought assistant just three years ago and Kentucky had to give him the Head-Coach-In-Waiting tag just to retain him. No offense to Taggart, but this is the easiest call of the group.
Edge: KENTUCKY
So, what did you really expect? Western is still building itself into a division 1A team and there’s still a ways to go. A shocker could happen, but I highly doubt the Wildcats are eager to be the team that Western breaks their 21 game losing streak against. Expect to see a lot of the younger players get some time. Kentucky wins by a sweep for the second week in a row of “The Edge.”
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