KY-ALA: Cats, Tide enter matchup on different levels
Dylan Moses and the Alabama defense did not give up a point in the last game against Mississippi State. (Alabama Media Relations)
By TIM GAYLE
One team is trying to recover from a devastating loss, the other is eager to play. Both are trying to focus on a college football season that appears to have an increasing number of distractions built into an already unusual season.
Kentucky is still reeling from the death of offensive line coach John Schlarman – whose funeral and memorial service were both held on Monday – while top-ranked Alabama is trying to get back on track after having its game against LSU last Saturday canceled by coronavirus.
“You’ve got to ask yourself what do you want, what do you want to invest in the season?” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “And I think that staying in compliance with some of the issues relative to health and safety for players has got to be of the utmost importance. And the second thing is you’ve really got to deal with what’s in front of you, knowing that there’s been a lot of things that happen that creates some changes.”
How Kentucky will deal with the loss of the popular Schlarman to cancer is the Wildcats’ burden, while Alabama will try to remain focused on Saturday’s game while conference officials contemplate juggling the rest of the Tide’s schedule to put a Tide-LSU matchup back in play. Alabama is a 30-point favorite to continue their domination of the Wildcats (Kentucky has won only in 1922 and 1997 in the history of the 40-game series) when the two teams kick off at 3 p.m. on the SEC Network.
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops offers no illusions on why Alabama is such a prohibitive favorite.
“We all know what they are this year and what they’ve been for quite a few years,” Stoops said. “Nick does a remarkable job of reloading. They’re an extremely talented football team, very well coached. Offensively, they may be as good an offensive team as I’ve seen since I’ve been a head coach and coordinator. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen somebody as explosive as they are offensively because they’re so balanced, extremely physical when they want to be and create unbelievable big plays with the talented receivers they have. (Quarterback) Mac (Jones) is playing at an extremely high level.”
Stoops and offensive coordinator Darin Hinshaw were two of the first recruiters to offer Jones a scholarship to play quarterback at Kentucky.
“We did recognize Mac early on in the process,” Stoops said. “Coach Hinshaw and all of us watched him early and we were impressed. I wish he was here, but we still really love Mac and his family. It’s good to see him doing so well, playing at such a high level.
Kentucky, meanwhile, has struggled to put together a solid performance on both sides of the ball at the same time, something that has been quite frustrating for Stoops.
“If I had the answer to that, I would have a lot less stress on me, that’s for sure,” he said. “It’s been hard to put my finger on it. We need to put it together, we need to play as a team, we need to play the very best we can on all sides and it doesn’t seem like we’re doing that.”
Stoops’ quarterback, Terry Wilson, is coming off his best performance in last week’s win over Vanderbilt, completing 13 of 15 passes for 110 yards and a pair of touchdowns while rushing for 83 yards and a touchdown on seven carries
“They do a good job with formations, they make you make a lot of adjustments and you’ve got to stay gap-sound in everything you do and you’ve got to have enough guys in the box to account for the quarterback,” Saban said. “I don’t think we’ve played anyone this year that the quarterback actually sort of does (what Kentucky does) or they have as many quarterback runs as these guys are capable of. So this is a game that requires a lot of discipline from all the players. Everybody’s got to do their job.”
Saturday’s game has special meaning for Stoops, who was recruited out of his Ohio high school by then-Michigan State assistant coach Nick Saban (Stoops instead followed his brothers to Iowa) and will also reunite the Wildcat coach with Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian. Stoops got to know Sarkisian well when the former was a defensive coordinator at Arizona and the latter was offensive coordinator at USC.
“I think he does a really nice job adapting to the personnel that he has,” Stoops said of Sarkisian’s style, “but he’s always had a physical presence about him. He’s going to be physical, he’s going to have play-action in there and he’s going to get the ball down the field. He’s got some dynamic playmakers.
“The challenge is going to be great, we all understand that. We’re probably playing one of the greatest offenses you’ve seen in a long time. And after that (a Nov. 28 game with Florida in Gainesville), we’re going to see one just the same.”