How Kentucky can spoil #5 Texas playoff party

The College Football Playoffs' first-week projected bracket was revealed, and as you can expect, Kentucky was nowhere to be found. However, that doesn't mean the rankings weren't relevant to the Wildcats, as they have two teams on their schedule featured in the first reveal: Louisville and Texas.

Louisville is nowhere near the actual playoff bracket at #23, but Kentucky can play spoiler if they are still climbing the rankings by that point, which is the season's final game. The real chance to play spoiler is against the Texas Longhorns, who are ranked #5 in the bracket and firmly caught up in the playoffs in the initial reveal.

Kentucky may need a miracle to pull off that upset; it takes some optimism. The reality is that Kentucky has the defense to pull off what Georgia did to Texas. Especially if Kentucky is fully healthy by then. Georgia gave Kentucky the road map to a defensive shutdown of Texas.

It was a frustrating day for the Longhorns against Georgia. Georgia did what Kentucky does well: slow the game down and make the offense earn the yards. The Bulldogs absolutely wrecked the Texas run game, and Texas eventually gave up on it completely. The Longhorns had 29 total rushing yards on 27 attempts. Georgia absolutely bottled them up and made quarterback Quinn Ewers throw the ball.

This chaos created in stopping the run caused four turnovers for Texas, and that's the philosophy Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops has been preaching all year: slowing things down, stopping the run, and creating turnovers. Can Kentucky do it? There is a pathway in front of them, and out of all the top teams in the SEC, Kentucky matches up well against Texas. This is how they beat Ole Miss, and this is how they almost beat Georgia.

Don't be surprised if Kentucky gets to play spoiler to Texas' dreams of the College Football Playoff. Even if they don't, it sure is fun to dream about.