Music City Bowl
The Tigers will play Kentucky in the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl Presented by Bridgestone in Nashville on December 29th. Kickoff is set for 1:00 PM on ESPN.
While I haven’t yet analyzed UK, note that they are 7-5 with only about 2 decent wins.
Losses:
Louisville (11-1) 28 59
Florida (12-1) 7 26
South Carolina (7-5) 17 24
LSU (10-2) 0 49
Tennessee (9-3) 12 17
Wins:
Texas St. - IAA (5-6) 41 7
Mississippi (4-8) 31 14
Central Mich. (9-4) 45 36
Mississippi St. (3-9) 34 31
Georgia (8-4) 24 20
Vanderbilt (4-8) 38 26
La.-Monroe (4-8) 42 40
According to NCAA stats, they pretty much don’t play defense at all. They don’t run the ball well and they give up a lot of sacks. BUT they have a very solid return game, have a high turnover margin, and throw the ball pretty dang well.
Uhh….yay…I guess? If we lose to Kentucky I will hide in shame for weeks.
Initial prediction, someone will lose a key player to grades between now and then and screw this up (or not with this being a Dec bowl). Otherwise, I think this is claose as it is really close to home for their faithful (Assuming they aren’t all in Rupp for basketball that afternoon. Night game lets them get back for it). We aren’t happy with it based on preseason projections and they are ecstatic. Sharp, short, passing game is our death. Run D is theirs. I take good passing over good running most days due to ability to score in short time frames with efficiency, all other things equal. I don’t think they will or should win. I do think our boys better get their heads about them, especially Will Proctor. He needs to think a little more about how ugly his stats are getting instead of how pretty the girls think he is before he becomes “that guy” in the minds of many fans. Oh, and Will, I have about the same arm strength you do. Hit the short, quick pass please. Everyone has been able to run in front of/under/deflect anything longer than 20 yards since La Tech’s short bus crowd left town in early October. Is Spence didn’t already know this, your stats would be worse than they are.
Cullen, are you listening? Do something in the next month and take the spot in Nashville. Earn some of next years PT now, unless you want to go ahead and give it to Korn. Your call.