Kentucky Football: 2021 schedule released, SEC Championship or bust

Kentucky fights off a pesky Vanderbilt team as usual

Flashback to November 3, 2012, in front of a listed crowd of 44,000 (it was more like 4,000) the culmination of the frustration of the Joker Phillips era boiled over. Vanderbilt came into then Commonwealth Stadium and put a whopping on Kentucky as no one had ever seen.

The Commodores beat Kentucky 40-0 and Kentucky fired Joker Phillips the next day. A little over three weeks later Stoops was named as head coach. If anything Kentucky fans should relish about Vanderbilt, it’s that they put the proverbial nail in the coffin that ultimately kickstarted Kentucky on a path to where it is today.

Vanderbilt is one of those games you just never know how it’s going to go. When Kentucky was bad it was almost always a guaranteed win but as the years go by and Kentucky has improved they always seem to give the Wildcats. Albeit Kentucky has won five in a row after the Commodores had won four of the previous five, and Vanderbilt has really nothing going for them, Thus one would think this would be a rout.

That’s where I disagree.

Kentucky is coming off a convincing win over Tennesee which means this has trap game written all over it. A lesser talented or inexperienced Kentucky team would succumb to Vanderbilt in this game, but not next year.

Kentucky and Vandy will likely be fighting for three quarters. I predict the score to be 21-17 going into the fourth quarter but a big takeaway on defense leads to an easy score and a late field goal seals Vanderbilt’s fate. Why does it always seem like a field goal decides the game between these two?

Kentucky wins 31-17 and improves to 9-1 and jumps into the top five.