Tennessee football hits the road for the second straight week, but it is looking for a different outcome this time around.
A border battle between the Vols and Kentucky Wildcats awaits. Tennessee comes off a disappointing road loss in its rivalry game against Alabama, while Kentucky looks to build on a close overtime loss to Texas.
The Vols (5-2, 2-2 SEC) have sputtered in recent weeks. A 20-point effort at Alabama was a season low, and 34 points to the worst-rated defense in the conference in Arkansas suggests more was left on the field. Kentucky (2-4, 0-4), meanwhile, is ready for basketball season. The Wildcats have not won a home SEC game in nearly 800 days, last taking a win over Florida at Kroger Field on Sept. 30, 2023.
The Daily Beacon caught up with the Kentucky Kernel’s Jonathon Bruner to preview the matchup.
What led to Kentucky’s overtime game last week? Was it the Wildcats playing well? Texas not being as good as it should have been?
“I think it was both. I think that we’ve kind of seen this maturation of Cutter Boley since he took the reins against Eastern Michigan, kind of being kind of thrown to the fire of SEC football, South Carolina. Looked great to start, then it plummeted and went downhill. Ran into Georgia. It was a competitive game at the start, and then it kind of snowballed and obviously ended up with a lopsided score.
“But I think the Texas game, we’ve seen Kentucky get receivers involved. We’ve seen an offense look capable of moving the football, but obviously, only putting up 13 points, not a lot of scoring.
That can kind of be the next step, which is getting seven points instead of holding for three or going for it or whatever the case may be. Just punching that in early and not having to worry about those tough decisions and stuff like that.
“I think the defense took a step as well. They struggled against South Carolina. They struggled against Georgia. But I think we also seen Texas still searching on offense. It kind of like they found something against Oklahoma, and then Kentucky’s defense kind of flipped the script on them once again and put together a really solid game. So I don’t blame the defense at all. I mean, on paper, those athletes are really good, and Arch Manning is a really good player. I think it’s kind of just a rough patch, honestly. And I think the longer he plays, the better he’s going to get.
“But I think this defense really has shown that it can keep this team in games, and normally it was the offense that needed to pick up the slack. And I thought they did that pretty well last week, obviously not well enough, but I don’t think that was all their fault. I think some of that falls on the play calling and kind of stuff that’s happening of their hands, especially during that overtime series that they had.”
What led to the decision to roll forward with redshirt freshman Cutter Boley over graduate transfer Zach Calzada at quarterback?
“It’s kind of an interesting paradox to start the year. Stoops is not really known as a kind of coach that will start a controversy, per se, between his own players. Normally, he’s very defensive of his own players and whoever they bring in as the transfer quarterback, everyone just kind of assumes, like, ‘Hey, this is the guy.’ And that was kind of all the indications of that.
“And then two weeks before the season, he kind of talked about Cutter battling Zach for that position and it kind of threw everyone off, as of like this is a little bit strange, he’s starting a quarterback controversy that wasn’t even there. So of course, that became narrative going into the season as, OK, well, Cutter’s creeping up on Zach. What’s gonna happen here?
“And then we saw Zach just kind of not play very well. I mean, just to be honest, he didn’t do, he just wasn’t great. And so then he went down with the injury, so that kind of opened the door.
“I honestly think a change was coming either way. I think even if he was not injured, that, especially going into a non-conference game against Eastern Michigan, Boley was going to get an extended look. He ended up playing the entire game, as Calzada was only available in like an emergency situation. But nonetheless, that’s when I kind of expected, like, OK, they’re going to at least try it.
“But he’s kind of done the opposite of what he did with Zach with Cutter, where he’s really stood on Cutter, like Cutter’s the guy. And I think it’s time. It’s his second year in the program. You need to know whether you have to go get another transfer quarterback or whether you’re going to be able to put the resources and all that stuff elsewhere to build around him.
“And I think what we’ve seen from him is kind of that just some maturation process of a young player. Seeing him kind of make some mistakes, grow from them. But we’ve also seen a lot of grit against Texas last week. He ran the ball. He put himself in harms way, even got hurt, but came back in and led the team to overtime, had them right there on the two-yard line. And then I think some things out of his control cost them that game.
I will not say Cutter Boley did anything to lose his team that game. And that’s the kind of unfortunate part about that for his sake. But nonetheless, I think you see a player who is not afraid to take chances, not afraid to air it out, and can really trust his guys by spreading the ball out and not just honing in on one or two playmakers.”
Why is Kentucky’s injury report so long? Are they serious injuries?
“I think a lot of it just comes back to last week. It was just an extremely physical, long game, and it’s just going to lead to injuries when you just have two teams who are just trying to lay it all out there. I would be willing to bet that some of those names may come off as we get closer to kickoff, but the biggest one that people need to circle on there every time a new one comes out is Seth McGowan.
“Seth McGowan is the RB1 for Kentucky. He’s a facilitator on that offense. I mean, just against Texas, he went and had an MRI midgame at the hospital and came back and finished out. So that right there just shows how much he means to this team. I think he’s essential for Cutter to have next to him just for comfortability. Not that he is not comfortable with his other backs, but you can tell that with Seth, it’s a little bit different. And with the team, with the whole team, just having Seth there as a leader of the offense is going to be huge. And if he’s not there, I think it already makes an uphill task even harder.”
What has been the most disappointing unit for Kentucky so far this year?
“I would probably say the wide receivers. I think they have on paper a really talented room, and I just don’t think you’ve quite seen it yet. But I think I don’t think that’s all their fault.
“I think probably, if I had to highlight the most disappointing thing to me, it’s been Bush Hamdan, the offensive coordinator. So I didn’t know if we could consider coaches a unit, but I guess he would play as a big part in the wide receiver unit. I just think his play calling has not been advantageous to the receivers, to the offense as a whole, especially last weekend and over time, a lot has been said about that fourth down call, at least amongst Kentucky fans and Kentucky media. And rightfully so, it was the wrong thing to do. Texas’ defensive line is as good as it gets and running it three straight times up the middle was just not — it wasn’t the right play. I know he defended it, but it was not the right thing to do, especially when you have some dynamic wideouts.
“So I would probably say them, but like I said, dealing with two quarterbacks, some shaky play calling, they haven’t been put in the best position, so it’s not fair to put all the blame on them. But I just think looking at them on paper, you would expect a little more than what’s been happening so far.”
