Important Conference Game On Saturday Night
Normally a match-up between Kentucky and Vanderbilt doesn’t exactly set the college football world on fire. However, the 2024 contest hits a little differently. With both teams coming off huge wins over top ten foes Saturday night’s meeting at 7:45 on the SEC Network has a little extra zest to it. Let’s look at both teams, give you some series history, and make a prediction as Kentucky Hosts Vanderbilt.
Keeping The Momentum
Mark Stoops’ club is coming off their first bye week of the season. While they still are riding the wave of the upset win over Ole Miss. Now job one for the Wildcat coaching staff is keeping the positive vibes going on both sides of the ball.
Against the Rebels, Bush Hamdan’s offense did some really good things. One thing to watch going forward is how quarterback Gavin Wimsatt fits into the scheme. Running nine times for 29 yards Wimsatt was featured quite a bit, including a run near the goal line. While the play resulted in a fumble, it was of course recovered in the end zone by Josh Kattus. Using the Rutgers transfer takes some of the pressure off Brock Vandagriff who’s coming off a good game throwing for 243 yards and a touchdown. Even more importantly he had no turnovers.
On the defensive side of the ball, Brad White’s group currently ranks fifth in the nation allowing only 242 yards a game. That includes holding the number one offense in the nation to only 353 yards and 17 points. They’ll need another huge effort on Saturday against a Commodore team led by a strong quarterback.
Scouting The Commodores
Vanderbilt is coming in on the highest of highs after upsetting then-top-ranked Alabama 40-35. The scene afterward with fans marching the goalpost down Broadway and dumping it in the Cumberland River is one we won’t soon forget. However, Clark Lea’s club has to move past last Saturday.
The offense is led by quarterback Diego Pavia. So far in 2024, he’s completed 67 percent of his passes for 973 yards and eight touchdowns. Even more impressive is he has no interceptions in 105 attempts. In addition, the New Mexico State transfer leads the team with 335 yards on the ground and two more scores. During the upset win over Alabama Pavia threw for 252 yards and two touchdowns while running for another 56.
Sedrick Alexander is right behind Pavia with 281 yards with five scores. When Vandy throws the ball their leading receiver is Eli Stowers who has 25 receptions for 333 yards and a touchdown. Quincy Skinner Jr. is second on the team with 12 catches for 170 yards.
Over on defense, Vanderbilt ranks 62nd in the nation giving up 346 yards a game. Although, against the pass, they are only 89th at 231 yards a game. Two linebackers lead the group. Langston Patterson has 36 tackles while Bryan Longwell has 35. In addition, he’s tied for the team lead with 1.5 sacks and an interception.
Now that we’ve looked at both teams let’s now look at the long-standing rivalry as Kentucky Hosts Vanderbilt.
Series History
Saturday marks the 97th time the two schools have met on the gridiron. Currently, Kentucky holds a 49-43 advantage with four ties. The Wildcats’ longest win streak is six which they have done twice. The first happened from 1976-1981 and the second was 2016-2021. Vandy’s longest winning streak is nine from 1896-1918. Obviously, they didn’t play every year back then.
A season ago Maxwell Hairston returned two interceptions for touchdowns while Ray Davis ran for 78 yards and two scores in an easy 17-point win.
The last time Vandy visited Lexington it was a different story. Behind 310 yards of total offense from Mike Wright, the Commodores handed Stoops one of his worst losses as Wildcat coach 24-21. Wright found Will Sheppard on an eight-yard pass for the win with 32 seconds remaining.
Well, we’ve looked at both teams and given you the series history. That means there’s only one thing left and that’s a prediction as Kentucky hosts Vanderbilt.
Who Wins On Saturday?
Getting up to play Vanderbilt shouldn’t be an issue. All Stoops has to do is show the Alabama game film. One thing the Wildcats must do is keep Vandy from getting off to a hot start. In their win over Virginia Tech, they jumped out to a 17-3 lead. Against Alabama, they got up 13-0 and 23-7. However, in both of those wins, they had to withstand huge rallies.
In order to pull out a win UK must reverse a couple of trends. The first is winning at home in the SEC. Over the last 10 games, the Cats are 2-8 in the supposed friendly confines of Kroger Field. The second is winning after a bye week. In his first eleven years as UK head man Stoops is 5-8 all-time after a break.
Kentucky opened as a nearly two-touchdown favorite which seems pretty crazy. The Commodores’ two losses came by four to Georgia State in their worst game of the year. Their other loss was at Missouri in double overtime by three.
Look for a close back-and-forth game that goes down to the wire. As we mentioned earlier the Cats must keep Vandy from sprinting out of the blocks. Do that and Kentucky should win and keep improving their bowl destination.
Kentucky 28-23
Thanks for checking out our preview as Kentucky hosts Vanderbilt here at Last Word On College Football. We’ll be back after the game with a recap.
