Kentucky Wildcats vs. Miami (OH) Red Hawks Football Preview and Game Day Links

Aug 31, 2013; Nashville, TN, USA; Kentucky Wildcats quarterback Maxwell Smith (11) takes the field during warm ups prior to the game against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers at LP Field. Mandatory Credit: Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports

Another Saturday, another game day for your Kentucky Wildcats!!!  Our boys are hosting the Miami (Ohio) Red Hawks this afternoon at Commonwealth Stadium for our first home game of the season.  While it’s too early for a “must win” game, we really need to win this one.  Or at least improve greatly on our Western debacle.  Kick off is slated for 12:00 and is being broadcast on UKTV which locally is CBS.  But before we get started, a little history if you please…

"Kentucky is opening the 41st season of football in Commonwealth Stadium. UK has won seven-consecutive home-openers since the 2006 season, adding to its all-time record of 93-23-6 in home debuts. This is the third time in school history that Kentucky has opened its home schedule against Miami (Ohio), holding a 2-1 record in those games. The Wildcats are coming off a 35-26 loss to WKU last Saturday in the season opener at LP Field in Nashville, Tenn. Eleven Wildcats made their first career starts, including five on offense and six on defense against WKU, which is a school record for most first-time starts in a game dating back to records kept since 1993. Kentucky has played Miami 12 times in a series that dates back to 1894. UK has a 7-4-1 advantage in the all-time series. The Wildcats will face the RedHawks for the third time in Commonwealth Stadium, and UK is 5-3-1 overall against Miami in Lexington. Kentucky won the last meeting between the two teams during the 2009 season at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio. Miami dropped its season opener to Marshall last weekend as the RedHawks gave up 38 unanswered points to fall 52-14 after being tied 14-14 at halftime. Scouting Miami (Ohio) Miami (Ohio) is coming off a 52-14 season-opening loss on the road to the Marshall Thundering Herd. The two teams were tied at 14-14 going into halftime before the Herd scored 38 second-half points to take control of the game and claim the win. The RedHawks, which return 47 letterwinners from 2012, including 16 starters (5 offense, 7 defense, 4 special teams), were led offensively in the game by quarterback Austin Boucher, who went 10-for-22 for 165 yards and a touchdown. Steve Marck and Rokeem Williams were the top receivers with Marck catching four passes for 41 yards and a touchdown, while Williams had three catches for 77 yards. Austin Gearing was the leading rusher for the RedHawks carrying the ball six times for 27 yards, while Dawan Scott had two carries for 21 yards. Jay Mastin lead the team on the defensive side of the ball with 12 tackles and an interception, while Kent Kern had 13 tackles and 0.5 tackles for loss. J’Terius Brown caused some problems in the backfield with 3.5 tackles for loss and one sack, while Dayonne Nunley had three pass breakups to go along with six tackles. The RedHawks went 4-8 last season, including a 3-5 mark in the MAC. This is the third season for MU under head coach Don Treadwell, who has an 8-16 record."

Miami (OH) Head Coach Don Treadwell doesn’t expect Ben Roethlisberger to walk back through that tunnel but it sure wouldn’t hurt it doesn’t seem.  Mark Schmetzer of the Oxford Press chatted up the Coach prior to their game this afternoon at Commonwealth.

"Perhaps for the first time since before Ben Roethlisberger started passing the ball around Oxford back in 2001, the RedHawks had more runs than passes while falling, 52-14, to the Thundering Herd. Miami attempted 34 rushes and just 23 passes. “That’s the first game in quite a while that we had more rushing attempts than passing attempts,” third-year coach Don Treadwell pointed out Monday in his weekly press conference. “That’s a sign of progress as we move on. We were also 100 percent when we got into the red zone in scoring touchdowns. It’s huge scoring touchdowns instead of kicking field goals.” While Miami ran the ball more often, the attack wasn’t mistaken for three yards and a cloud of dust. The RedHawks managed to grind out just 74 yards on the ground, led by backup quarterback Austin Gearing’s 27 yards on six carries. Third-year sophomore Spencer Treadwell started at running back and gained 15 yards on five carries. Fifth-year senior quarterback Austin Boucher threw for 165 yards, logging 10 completions in 22 passes in his first start since the end of the 2010 season. “He was pretty consistent, especially if you take out a couple of drops on throws that were right on the money and had the potential to be big plays,” Treadwell said. “That matters. He did what we asked him to do.” While Treadwell was satisfied with the play of his quarterback, first-year Kentucky coach Mark Stoops was less so with the performance of sophomore starter Jalen Whitlow. He gave way during the 35-26 season-opening loss to Western Kentucky in Nashville last Saturday to classmate Maxwell Smith, who was 8-of-13 for 125 yards and one touchdown. Whitlow’s numbers were similar, 10 of 15 for 78 yards, but Stoops felt Kentucky’s offense looked so much better with Smith at the helm that he was installed as the starter this week in practice. “It’s not at all ever on the quarterback, but he made less mistakes and he did some of the basic things that we’re looking for correctly and distributed the ball where we needed to,” said Stoops, a defensive coach for his entire career at stops at Wyoming, Houston, Miami (Fla.), Arizona and Florida State before he took the Kentucky job. “So that was the big thing with helping us move the football.” Treadwell is more concerned with the Wildcats’ size on the lines, especially defensively, where 338-pound senior tackle Mister Cobble tops the charts. He lines up next to 320-pound senior tackle Donte Rumph."

And about that improvement, Mark Stoops expects to see it against these Red Hawks.  We have a winning record against them and the number to the left of the (-) is likely to increase by one after this game.

"Not only will Saturday mark UK’s home opener, it will also represent a chance for the Cats to erase some of the frustration lingering from their week-one defeat and, just as importantly, the way they played. “I think we’re all disappointed because we know we could have done better,” head coach Mark Stoops said. “So that’s where we’re looking to make that improvement this week.” Set to face Miami (Ohio) at noon ET in Commonwealth Stadium, UK will look to showcase that improvement. It may have arrived a little earlier than anyone had hoped, but the Cats knew adversity awaited them this season. Now, they want to show what they’re made of in the face of it. “It’s a great opportunity just to gain confidence back and just for the morale of the team and the coaching staff,” defensive tackle Donte Rumph said. “Last Saturday was a disappointment, but we’re not going to give up, we’re not going to let down. It’s only the first game.” Confidence is a word that has been repeated often this week by players and coaches. After a trying season in 2012, UK’s returners don’t have much in the way to call on in the way of past performance to steel themselves when things don’t go according to plan. The Wildcat newcomers – 10 of whom played against Western Kentucky University – have only high-school and junior-college memories to fall back on. “I feel like that’s most of the problem: people believing that they can do it and having confidence in themselves,” Demarco Robinson said. “And that’ll make the coaches have more confidence in us and the whole team.” Robinson reeled in his first-career touchdown against WKU, becoming the only UK wide receiver on the roster with a scoring catch. The hope is that, with Maxwell Smith inserted at quarterback, more will follow suit. “Everybody wants to get in the end zone and I feel like the harder we work and the more success we have in practice, the more fun these guys are going to have out there,” Smith said. “Scoring touchdowns, winning games, competing, that’s what we gotta do.” In assuming the starting role, Smith has followed through on his post-WKU promise to assert himself as a leader. The redshirt sophomore has starting experience, including in 2012 when he got off to a blazing start before suffering a season-ending ankle injury. Nonetheless, he doesn’t deny that butterflies come with the territory of starting a Division I college football game. “I just feel pressure kind of every game, to be honest with you,” Smith said. “I feel the same amount of pressure every time I go out there. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing and just go out there and compete.” Miami’s option game could be a test for a UK defense that reverted to some bad habits in the opener. After an offseason of learning and executing assignments, the Cats found themselves making small mistakes like leaving their assigned gaps. The errors were ones of commission, but they led to big plays nonetheless. “I think everybody was trying to do everybody else’s job and just kind of forgot about their own job,” Rumph said. “I know how we play when we play together. You’ve seen little spurts of it on Saturday. We’re just trying to become more consistent.” That underscores UK’s approach in practice this week. Of course, the Cats are mindful of their opponents – they want to win on Saturday after all – but they’re even more mindful of themselves. “This is really more about Kentucky than it is about Miami,” Stoops said. “We all have a lot of pride and our players have pride and it’s time to get back to work and get better.”"