Three Games to Change the Season
By Paul Jordan
Rich Brooks says you might need this
This football season, despite last week’s disappointing performance, is not what some people are calling a “sub-par” football season. Our losses have been ones that we were expecting, and our wins were big enough to be comfortable for everyone. What we didn’t see coming is the defense being even more lackluster than hoped; whether it’s Steve Brown’s timidity and general resistance to blitzing or the fact that our front seven is not where we want it to be. The offense is chugging along a a great clip, and we can be competitive with any team on our schedule. Whether we will be competitive remains to be seen; some of our leaders will need to step up and not only up their play, but motivate those around them to improve their play. These next three games (#8 Auburn, #19 South Carolina, #125 Georgia) will almost certainly decide our bowl game fate and the overall tone of Joker’s first season. Let’s look at the possible scenarios and see what they spell for the fate of the team.
3-0
The most unlikely scenario of the set, this would require some serious work by both sides of the ball and consistency that, honestly, we haven’t seen out of the team in one game, much less a set of three. #8 Auburn is rolling into Commonwealth touting the 8th best rushing attack in the nation with a very mobile QB in Cameron Newton (leading the team in rushing…we’re boned). If we manage to win against them, it gets mch easier but right now I don’t see that happening. Such a spectacular run would set us up to make this an eight or nine win season,a nd almost certainly a lovely bowl trip to a warm climate to play a Big 11 1210 team in an Australian themed bowl game.
2-1
Assuming the loss come to Auburn, the Cats can rally hard and come back swinging against the Fightin’ Visors. Despite only having a middle-of-the-road team (49th ranked offense, 33rd ranked defense) and not having beaten any teams that weren’t just paper tigers (a ranked Georgia team two weeks ago, then Southern Miss and Furman? Who thinks that these guys are good?), the Ole Ball coach knows how to play the Cats. Hopefully we can turn that streak around; it might not be the longest or worst streak against us, but it is the most annoying. A 2-1 record through this stretch still gives us a chance for a eight or nine win season, but it would take one hell of a streak to finish that out. But 2-1 would make our bowl outlook rather peachy (is anybody enjoying these entendre’s?).
1-2
I would like to consider this a worst case scenario, but as a season ticket holding student in the early to mid-2000’s, I know how bad it can get. A loss to Auburn (likely) and a loss to South Carolina (possible) would put the team in a serious hole and possible reeling emotionally, since that would leave us in a four game losing streak (yikes). Georgia is looking rather toothless this year, and even with a new mascot (Uga VIII is just as ugly as VII) they aren’t looking strong. A.J. Green’s return is the only thing that will put this game into question, but this is the most winnable game by the Cats. One win in this stretch and it puts an eight win season into serious jeopardy and makes another Nashville or Shreveport trip much more likely. (I can’t think of any interesting entendres to describe the Music City or Liberty bowls, sorry)
0-3
The Doomsday scenario. Code Red. If the Cats’ morale gets crushed by two opening losses and we drop the third, things are looking very bad in the world (excuse me, war room) of Joker and fingers may start pointing. The potential is there for this season to collapse completely uder this kind of weight and I can only hope that this is not the case. But hey, even if we lose all three and come back to battle well against the armies of the South and our last non-conference game, we’ll be bowl eligible and I’m sure Nashville or Shreveport would welcome us back. Sucks, but them’s the facts.
So even though the outlook is slightly troubling for the big blue nation, the latter two options seem to have the same destination, which should be comforting to a school trying to extend its bowl streak. If we can win Saturday, we set ourselves up for what could be one of the most epic runs of UK football history since 2007. Good luck Joker, you’re going to need it.
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