Kentucky teammates at odds on how to approach rivalry game against the Tennessee Vols

Tennessee Vols fans should probably go ahead and prepare for a chippy game against the Kentucky Wildcats in Lexington on Saturday night.  Wildcats offensive lineman Kenneth Horsey spoke to reporters this week and he made it clear that the game against the Vols is anything but ordinary. And that's something he wants Kentucky's young players […]

Zach Ragan — Tennessee Volunteers News Writer
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Tennessee Vols fans should probably go ahead and prepare for a chippy game against the Kentucky Wildcats in Lexington on Saturday night. 

Wildcats offensive lineman Kenneth Horsey spoke to reporters this week and he made it clear that the game against the Vols is anything but ordinary. And that's something he wants Kentucky's young players to understand. 

"It means a lot," said Horsey when asked about the Tennessee game. "A lot of these guys don't really understand it, being around only a couple of years. But I've been able to see from the fans and gain experience — you know, I was on the last team (in 2020) that went out to Neyland and beat them in Tennessee. So it's just getting the guys to understand that it's just not an ordinary game."

"You know, this is already an exceptional team, but now this is an exceptional team that does not like us a lot," added Horsey. "And we're a team that does not like Tennessee. That's not a crazy thing to say. We understand that it's a rivalry and we respect our opponents greatly. We both want to go into Kroger Field and get a win. It's just going to be about who wants it more." 

One of Horsey's teammates, running back Ray Davis, seems to have a different view of how to approach the game against the Vols. 

Davis, who played at Vanderbilt before transferring to Kentucky, doesn't think the older players on the team should be making the game against Tennessee a big deal to the younger players on the team. 

"For me, it's just a regular football game," said Davis when told about Horsey's comments. "I think when you start putting too much pressure on it, and you start applying that to the younger guys a lot, it becomes — people try to do too much. Do more than what they need to do."

"The whole city of Lexington wants us to beat Tennessee," added Davis. "But we gotta do what we gotta do. We gotta go within our expectations and what we hold in our standards. It's going to be a good game. They're coming in off a loss. We're coming off a loss. It's just about going out there and whichever team gets a W, gets a W."

It sounds like there are some mixed signals in Kentucky's locker room on how to approach the game against Tennessee. Whether or not that impacts the Wildcats' play on the field is anyone's guess. But it's clear that Kentucky isn't unified in their mentality when it comes to playing the Vols. 

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