Kentucky says they won't be approaching the Tennessee game like Josh Heupel is excepting the Wildcats to on Saturday
The Kentucky Wildcats likely won't be approaching their game against the Tennessee Vols on Saturday like UT head coach Josh Heupel is expecting them to. But that's not necessarily a bad thing for the Vols. In fact, it's probably a good thing. Heupel said during Vol Calls on Wednesday night that he's expecting Kentucky to […]
The Kentucky Wildcats likely won't be approaching their game against the Tennessee Vols on Saturday like UT head coach Josh Heupel is expecting them to.
But that's not necessarily a bad thing for the Vols.
In fact, it's probably a good thing.
Heupel said during Vol Calls on Wednesday night that he's expecting Kentucky to try to slow the game down to limit the Vols' possessions.
"It’s been that way the last couple of years that we’ve played them," said Heupel when asked about Kentucky trying to shorten the game. "This year, for sure, that’s the style of game. You look at them, they’re going to huddle. They’re snapping the ball with under 10 seconds on the play clock a majority of the time. We’ve got to do a great job of defending the run, handling the play-action pass. That’s a big part of it, too."
“But it’s a game that is shortened, right, so you’ve got limited opportunities" added Heupel. "It doesn’t matter in the big scheme of it, other than you can’t afford to not taking advantage of your opportunities during the course of this football game. We’ve got to maximize the opportunities that we have on both sides of the football and on special teams, because field position will be critical in this one, too.”
A year ago, Kentucky made it clear ahead of the game that they wanted to slow the game down and limit Tennessee's possessions. But that strategy backfired due to the struggles of then-Wildcats quarterback Will Levis and the Vols' stingy defense.
This year, new Kentucky offensive coordinator Liam Coen says the Wildcats need to score points to keep up with Tennessee. So while UK will likely still huddle and use more play clock than the Vols, their goal isn't to eat as much clock as possible.
"We're ultimately trying to go score as many points as possible, however it happens,” said Coen while referencing that Kentucky ran 99 plays and the Vols ran just 47 plays in Tennessee's 45-42 win in Lexington in 2021.
"It's not really a slow the game down type of mentality," said Coen this week. "They do what they do, we do what we do. And we gotta go execute at a high level."
It sounds like the Wildcats know they'll need to score as many points as possible on Saturday to beat Tennessee. And they're not interested in trying to limit Tennessee's possessions.
Ultimately, that's a good thing for the Vols. It should give Tennessee's offense more opportunities to put points on the board. And if the Vols can execute for a full 60 minutes like they did in the first half against Alabama, Tennessee could end up cruising in this one.
