Tennessee coach respects what Mark Stoops is building at Kentucky

"They have a lot of explosive plays", said Vols freshman linebacker Darrin Kirkland Jr., who has brushed up on two years' worth of Kentucky game film. Thoughts of last week's 42-16 drubbing at the hands of Mississippi State haunted their minds all week.

The University of South Carolina's football game against the University of Tennessee will kickoff at 4:00 p.m. EST on November 7, the Southeastern Conference announced this week.

1 - This will be the first time Tennessee and Kentucky square off in the month of October since 1909. But this year, the long-time rivals are playing on Halloween.

So far this year, Towles has thrown for 1,730 yards on 146 completions (60.3 completion percentage).

The Vols' improvement has caught the attention of Kentucky, which is having its own issues trying to close the gap against the SEC's top teams. Towles, whose 4,681 yards passing and 390 completions each ranks sixth in program history, would join Jared Lorenzen, Andre Woodson, Tim Couch, Mike Hartline and Bill Ransdell in the exclusive group. Not only has Tennessee won 29 of the last 30 meetings - Kentucky's lone win came in 2011 - it has typically won handily. This will be another opportunity for UT to impose its will on the ground, and it would not be surprising to see two 100-yard rushers in this game and perhaps a team total of 250+ yards on the ground. Now, how do we continue to elevate our play to close and finish games off? Although they're coming off a loss to Alabama (19-14), they'll have more confidence heading into this game than the Wildcats.

And they're wary of it. The Wildcats showed against Auburn what they can do at home, but the offense isn't there to keep up if Tennessee finally starts to put together a full, four quarter offensive performance. Kentucky had absolutely no answer for the Bulldog star, who hit 71% of his passes for 348 yards and three scores while running for 117 yards and three scores. The junior has five rushing touchdowns and nine passing. Matt Elam is 6'7 and 315 pounds. Hurd has only had three 100-yard games this season and has failed to reach the century mark in the last three games. Earlier this week, the Lexington Herald-Leader's Jen Smith wrote about Elam and his thoughts on his first career start last week.

But then you take into account the Florida game, and it is impossible to escape the fact that the Wildcats can give offenses hell.

Redshirt sophomore running back has averaged a team-high 5.5 yards per carry with 276 yards and three scores on 50 carries. But they do not have the talent to match the Vols man per man. Kentucky is at home. If they can play as well as they did against Alabama, the Wildcats are in trouble. If Kentucky can limit the production of those three players, it has a chance at the upset. It was Kentucky's second loss in a row. I think the expression was born at a Vandy game actually.

Since being picked behind Georgia to win the SEC East at SEC Media Days, four losses have occurred for the Vols by a combined 17 points to Oklahoma, Florida, Arkansas, and Alabama. Josh Dobbs is playing very well and the Kentucky defense still has its kinks to work through.