Tipping the Scales: Mississsippi State

Funny that all the stories this week talk of getting the Cats off the schnide after beating a top-10 team last week, but such is the world of college football in Kentucky. I’ll admit, I was one of those that wrote such a reactionary article, but at no time did I say we were in panic mode and I stand by what I said (except for the words with vowels in them). Having a chance to make a bowl game of any type for another year, even if we lose this game, is possible. That may sound like small reward for fans who were expecting increases in our bowl visibility yearly, but true fans will still be happy with Nas….I can’t say it. I lied. If we end up in the formerly Gaylord-iest bowl game of the year again, I’m going to drink until I forget we’re there. This game is big because another win against a ranked opponent will put us in position to grab a better bid and put some shine on the season. The odds are long, the Dawog’s are steaming hot right now riding a five game win streak, including over Pope Urban’s Cardinal College of Felons.
Vick Ballard v. UK’s run defense- The junior starting RB doesn’t even have the most runs this year (78 to QB Chris Relf’s 107) and he is flat tearing it up when Relf finally does give him the ball. Averaging 6.6 yards per carry and 11 touchdowns, the linebacking corp is going to have to get to the sidelines and stop the long plays; although an ankle tweaking has his status for Saturday up in the air and even if he does play, turning a hard corner up the sideline might be difficult .Hopefully Ridge Wilson, after apparently whining the whole season about playing, will show up and provide strong side consistency.
UK’s run offense v. MSU’s run defense- Derrick Locke is out for another game, and the run game ain’t lookin’ so hot at this second. Even with Raymond Sanders blowing up(called it! look it up on this site) and averaging 4.9 ypc, the team as a whole is not getting it done on the run. Mississippi St. is only allowing 3.6 ypc carry on the year, so something will have to happen in order for Mike Hartline to be able to stand back and look like a Manning award candidate (what?) in the pocket.
Cowbell Traditions v. Common Sense- Even though the SEC has had bans on artificial noisemaker’s (thus killing my UK vuvuzuela business plan), the MSU cowbell was fought for as a tradition of the games and somehow allowed to remain. Of course the sound was deafening and the NCAA had to rule that they were in violation of the policy; MSU apologized and promised they wouldn’t do it at the wrong times any more. If you have ever been to college or even a college football game, polite suggestions don’t work so well against 10,000 drunk frat guys who are clanging those dumb things for 4 hours straight. Just get rid of them.
The fact of the matter is, it’s going to be be a hard game to win and it’s going to take a full 60 minutes of football, and so far we haven’t seen that yet. The Fightin’ Dan Mullens are as hot as anyoone in the conference right now and are playing on their home turf. But we have karma on our side. The visiting team has won this game 4 out the last 5 years and we still have the honorable Randall Cobb. I’m going bold and calling this one for the Cats again 24-20.

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