Kentucky Wildcat Football: 7 Degrees of Mississippi State Bulldogs

Oct 12, 2013; Starkville, MS, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs fan cheers his team on late in the game against the Bowling Green Falcons at Davis Wade Stadium. The Bulldogs defeated the Falcons 21-20. Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

The Kentucky Wildcats football team will matchup against the Mississippi State bulldogs this Thursday at 7:30 PM (ET) on ESPN in Starkville, Mississippi.

Here’s are the 7 degrees Dawgs from ‘cats in which you’ll find tsunami’s, ducks, and NASCAR:

• Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field is the official name of the football facility in Starkville. The second oldest stadium still in FBS (Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd Stadium is the oldest) was originally named Scott Field after an early Mississippi State football and track star, Don Magruder Scott.
• In 1999 Scott Field received $50 million in renovations paid for by Aflac director and founder Floyd Davis Wade Sr. The renovations included 50 sky boxes, a second upper deck that seats 7,000, and 1,700 club level seats along with the renaming of the facility.
• That same year (1999) Aflac introduced the Aflac Duck as their mascot. The Duck was originally voiced by Gilbert Gottfried.
• On March 14, 2011 Gottfried, comedian by day – voice actor by night, was fired for a series of remarks he posted on Twitter concerning the tsunami that struck Japan, including:

"“What do the japanese have in common with @howardstern? They’re both radio active.”“Japan called me. They said “maybe those jokes are a hit in the US, but over here, they’re all sinking.”"

• During Gottfried’s 11 years as the voice of the duck, he did numerous commercials with other celebrities. One of those celebrities included NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Carl Edwards.
• Edwards, who now drives the #99 car, has a primary sponsorship deal with Aflac and won his first career NASCAR race Kentucky’s Sparta Speedway in 2003.
• Ten years later, Owensboro, Kentucky native and two-time Daytona 500 winner, Michael Waltrip drove a University of Kentucky-themed car in the Kentucky Speedway’s Quaker State 400 to commemorate UK’s eighth basketball title that took place two months earlier when the Wildcats defeated Kansas, 67-59.

10 years, 10 bad jokes, 1600 left hand turns, and two voices of a cartoon duck leaves us with exactly how the Mississippi State is connected to the University of Kentucky in 7 degrees.