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

Oct 27, 2012; Oxford, OH, USA; Miami Redhawks kicker Kaleb Patterson (13) celebrates with linebacker Collin Boucher (44) after kicking the go-ahead field goal during the fourth quarter of the game against the Ohio Bobcats at Fred Yager Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rob Leifheit-USA TODAY Sports

If you’re trying to handicap the game, Miami (OH) offers a feast or famine approach.  They seem to play tough at the start and become invisible in the second half.  Just ask Marshall.

"For the second straight season, Kentucky lost to in-state rival Western Kentucky and started the season 0-1. Every loss is always considered bad, but this was a very bad loss, and a crucial one at that for UK. Now, the team must salvage last week heading into the Commonwealth to take on Miami (Ohio) Saturday. Miami had major offensive woes in their first outing at Marshall. The teams entered halftime deadlocked at 14-14, but that quickly changed thanks to a 38-point run in the second half by the Herd, resulting in a 52-14 loss for the Redhawks. The Redhawks just don’t have the pieces on offense to hang with Kentucky’s crazy defensive depth at multiple positions, including the Cats’ front four. Kentucky has all the tools in the toolbox on the defensive line such as Bud Dupree to collapse the pocket on fifth-year senior quarterback Austin Boucher. Boucher went 1-for-10 against Marshall in passing in the second half. The Redhawks no longer field quarterback Zac Dysert and his favorite target from last season, wide receiver Nick Harwell. Both kept Miami in tight games, though the team had only won four games in each of  head coach Don Treadwell’s first two seasons. Miami finished 2012 ranked 75th in total offense, this year’s offense yielded only 239 yards of total offense at Marshall. Miami had nine players make their first career start last Saturday, five coming on offense."

Not unlike Men’s Basketball Head Coach John Calipari, Mark Stoops deals with the mental aspect of athletes head on.  He understands clearly that after the Western loss, they are carrying around a lot of baggage that will only derail their improvement.

"One of my working theories coming into the 2013 Kentucky football season was that the UK roster, freed of the rampant negativity that swirled around the Wildcats program as Joker Phillips’ job security was discussed daily last year, would exhibit improved play simply from emerging into the sunlight of a new coaching era. After seeing how the Cats performed in their season-opening loss to Western Kentucky, I now wonder if I underestimated how much psychic damage was done to the Cats during last season’s 2-10 slog through hopelessness. In his weekly news conference Monday, Mark Stoops mentioned his team’s “psychology” three times. Count Stoops’ comments immediately afterKentucky lost to Western 35-26 last Saturday night Nashville, and the new UK football coach also brought up his team’s “psyche” twice. Even allowing for all the other issues that confront Stoops and his new coaching staff in their effort to get the Kentucky football program back on the rails, I’m not so certain that their most pressing task is not winning “the head game” with their new players. Several times since he was hired to replace Phillips as Kentucky coach, Stoops has mentioned the need to rebuild the confidence levels of the players he inherited. How difficult that task may be was on full display against WKU. Kentucky may not have anywhere near the talent level it takes to be competitive against the death march of a schedule it will soon face in 2013, but if one puts any weight in the recruiting star system, Kentucky should have handled Western. According to the recruiting service Rivals.com, Kentucky’s 22 starters against WKU included four two-star players; 17 three-star recruits; and, in junior-college transfer Za’Darius Smith, one four-star."