Mississippi State at Kentucky

The Sports Xchange

September 19, 2018 at 5:43 pm.

GAME SNAPSHOT
KICKOFF: Saturday, 7 p.m. ET
SITE: Kroger Field, Lexington, Ky.
TV: ESPN2
SERIES: Mississippi State leads 23-22. The Bulldogs won 45-7 in 2017.
RANKINGS: Mississippi State No. 14

PLAYERS TO WATCH
Bulldogs

–QB Nick Fitzgerald accounted for six touchdowns last weekend and has rushed for over 100 yards in both of his starts this season. Fitzgerald drastically improved upon his completion percentage last week, hitting on 14 of 21 passes for 243 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 107 yards and four more scores.

–DE Chauncey Rivers is much more on MSU’s defensive line than just a former featured athlete on the Netflix documentary series “Last Chance U.” After sitting out last season, Rivers gives the Bulldogs some quality depth on their second wave of D-linemen and usually finds a way to flash when he’s on the field.

–S Marcus Murphy flies down the field like a missile on kickoff coverage and has gotten quite a workout this season due to State averaging 50 points per game. Murphy was an offensive star in high school but has made a seamless transition to defense and doesn’t shy away from contact.

–PK Scott Goodman has been impressive through the first three games with 11 of his 25 kickoffs being downed in the end zone for touchbacks. The walk-on true freshman was brought in as a kickoff specialist and has excelled in that role.

Wildcats

–RB Benny Snell is the real deal for the Wildcats. He has rushed for 375 yards in the three games, which is second to the 399 of Texas A&M’s Trayveon Williams in the SEC. He will be up against a Mississippi State defense that has held opponents to just 85 yards a game.

–WR Lynn Bowden was considered Kentucky’s prize recruit in 2017 and is beginning to show why. After catching 17 passes in transitioning from quarterback last year, he has already matched that total in just three games. His 17 catches have been good for 185 yards and a touchdown. Eight of the catches for 89 yards came last week against Murray State. “He’s playing better with every opportunity,” coach Mark Stoops said.

–LB Jeff Allen is Kentucky’s defensive leader. He made the play that secured the win over Florida by forcing a fumble on the Gators’ final play and has been credited with two sacks to lead the Wildcats in that category. He also has broken up a pass.

–LB Daniel Kash is the team’s leading tackler with 25 stops and consistently earns Stoops’ praise for his continued dedication to the program. He is still looking for his first sack but has been given credit for four quarterback hurries.

KEYS
TO THE GAME

Kentucky running back Benny Snell may have given Mississippi State some “bulletin board material” with his comments after the Wildcats’ rout of Murray State last week.

The No. 14 Bulldogs (3-0, 0-0 SEC) and unranked Wildcats (3-0, 1-0 SEC) meet Saturday with kickoff at 7 p.m. ET at Kroger Field in Lexington. ESPN2 will handle the telecast.

Snell expressed confidence in his team’s offense after the Wildcats rushed for 245 yards against the FCS foe.

“I’m going to run on any team,” Snell said. “You could be an NFL team, it don’t matter. This offense don’t fear nobody. I know they’re good, but this offense is good, too.”

Mississippi State coach Joe Moorhead, who has his Bulldogs off to an unbeaten start in his debut season, agrees with the notion that Snell, who has rushed for 2,779 yards in less than three seasons, is the real deal.

“His talent and production kind of speaks for itself,” Moorhead said. “He’s an All-SEC player that’s 5-11, 225-pounds and is in a lot of ways similar to our guys. He can run between the tackles, can break it out in the open and is a good receiver out of the backfield.”

But Moorhead and defensive coordinator Bob Shoop no doubt have taken a long look at game film from last year’s Bulldogs’ victory over the Wildcats. The Bulldogs held Snell to just 18 yards on seven rushes in pasting the Wildcats 45-7.

“Coach Shoop and his staff do a real good job exhausting all of the possible scenarios and ways to bottle up a guy like that,” Moorhead said. “He’s a guy that you’re not necessarily going to stop. You’re just looking for ways to contain him because he is talented.”

State’s defense is only allowing 85 yards per game on the ground this season and must remain vigilant against Snell.

“With any great back, you have to make sure you have great gap integrity,” Moorhead said. “You’ve got to make sure you do a great job of gang tackling and getting a bunch of hats to the ball. With this guy and how physical he is, he can bounce off tackles and you can’t arm-tackle him because he’s going to run through it.”

The Bulldogs are coming into the game off a 56-10 rout of Louisiana that followed a 31-10 win at Kansas State and 63-6 rout of Stephen F. Austin. This will be Moorhead’s first SEC outing. He’s looking forward to it.

“I’m excited to get into SEC play, the first one on the road,” he said. “It’s going to be a great challenge, and we will be ready for it.”

Kentucky already has one SEC win to its credit, ending a three decades-long losing streak to Florida with a 27-16 victory over the Gators, who had won 31 consecutive games in the series.

The Wildcats then dominated Murray State to get off to a 3-0 start for a second consecutive season. They haven’t won four to start a season since 2008, when they opened with wins over Louisville, Norfolk State, Middle Tennessee, and Western Kentucky before losing 17-14 to Alabama. They finished that year at 7-6.

Mississippi State’s physicality concerns Stoops. The Wildcats have a bruising quarterback in Nick Fitzgerald (6-5 230) to lead an offense that has averaged 558 yards in total offense.

“They’re as physical as anybody you’re going to play in this league, if not more,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said. ” So you have to match them. It starts there. But again, there’s a lot of other things that are going to go into it. But that’s a big piece of it.”

Fitzgerald, who was suspended for the opener, has passed for 397 yards and rushed for 266 in two outings.

His counterpart at Kentucky, Terry Wilson, has passed for 392 yards and rushed for 233 in his three starts.