1. Patrick Towles is a good QB. He's a real big kid, solid passer, and yes he's mobile, but more in the Andrew Luck / Jameis Winston sort of way (i.e. good enough athlete to move the sticks with his legs if need be, but he's usually not looking to run).* 2. I have no earthly idea what in the hell history has to do with this team's ability to stop a mobile QB. Could you explain that one to me? Somebody mentioned that a high ankle sprain to a certain UT player would pretty much kill our chances of winning this game. And while I'm not disputing the veracity of that statement, I will add that if Patrick Towles were somehow to go out of the game with an injury and UT is in the lead, you can just go ahead and slap your hand on the table and call ballgame. *He runs more than those two guys so maybe the analogy isn't perfect, but it isn't like we're going up against Cam Newton.
Kentucky has a lower talented team with worse depth than UT but is centered around one player, Towles. KB's write-up is spot on. Tennessee has more talent and slightly better depth and is also centered around one player. If UT or UK take an injury to their staff bailout player that team is likely done. UT stands a better chance to weather Dobbs going out than UK stands to lose Towles. UK has given up 300+ rush yards in 3 of their last 4 games. While UT doesn't run as well as UGA, LSU or MSU we are better on offense than Mizzou who put up 164 pass and 156 rush. I like UT's chances to break 400-450 yards. I think Towles has a frustrating game and finishes with ~200 pass and 50 rush but throws it 40 times. I think the week of rest for UT comes at a perfect time and UK is finishing up a pretty brutal stretch of games where reality struck their cinderalla season. Long story short, if UT has any quality on staff at all, we'll win this one by 14-20.
I would add that UT is centered around one guy by design, whereas UK pretty much does it out of necessity.
Not to mention the fact that Dobbs easily has better weapons around him. I'm not a fan of Bajakian as I think he's far too inflexible and can't modify his system to fit a different QB but it's easy to see that Worley was not a fit for our system and Dobbs in his current form is. If our WRs actually show up big and Pearson/North/Pig/Malone get separation and Wolf can actually catch the damned ball we'll eviscerate Kentucky.
It's November, and it 's time to stuff the Kenturkey... if not for that clubhouse cancer Da Reek we would still (as wretched as the past decade has been...) hold the record for consecutive defeats of an opponent... we'll beat Kentucky because it's what we do.
Y'all have more depth and are more athletic. There's no other team I'd want to become bowl eligible against, but it doesn't happen this year. I just hope that Barker is all he's supposed to be next year.
I'm not nearly as concerned about this game with Dobbs as I would have been if Worley was under center...err, in shotgun. That being said, I'm far from comfortable. I think we should beat them somewhat convincingly but, I'm not sure that I will ever be sold on any team with a Mike Bajakian-led offense. ...and Jancek hasn't been sharp lately, either.
Losing to Kentucky will negate beating South Carolina. This is a must-win to have any chance of redeeming a little hope for this staff's future here.
Beating USC didn't negate Florida. If we lose to Kentucky and Florida this year it'll outweigh both wins against South Carolina without even factoring in the Vandy embarrassment last year.
