No. 3 Texas vs. Kentucky: Three matchups to watch

The Longhorns prepare to host the Wildcats on Saturday.

On paper, Saturday’s matchup between the No. 3 Texas Longhorns and the Kentucky Wildcats in Austin looks like a game that probably shouldn’t be close, but that is why the games are not played on paper. The Wildcats enter this game with a 4-6 record and are 1-6 in SEC play. The lone win came over Ole Miss in Oxford where they were able to keep Jaxson Dart and the Ole Miss offense in check, holding them to 17 points. Since that victory, the Wildcats have dropped four straight games in conference play.

This is another team that will do its best to try to ugly up the game. They want to slow things down and they want to grind things out on both sides of the football because they know they are not able to win track meets with anyone. They came up just short of upsetting Georgia earlier in the season and were able to hold the Bulldogs to 13 points. The problem was they were only able to muster 12 points of their own.

Looking at the strengths of both teams, it would not shock me at all if this was a lower scoring game on Saturday. This week, I have narrowed my focus to a few different matchups I will be keeping an eye as the Longhorns and Wildcats prepare to get acquainted in SEC conference play.

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The Kentucky passing attack vs. the Texas secondary

Brock Vandagriff will be under center for the Wildcats come Saturday and he spearheads a very underwhelming passing attack for Kentucky. Vandagriff is a former blue-chip quarterback recruit who originally signed with Georgia before portalling out to Lexington and it is safe to say that he hasn’t lived up to the billing thus far. Through 10 games, Vandagriff has accumulated 1,542 yards through the air with a TD-INT ratio of 9-7, while completing 57.8 percent of his passes.

Kentucky ranks 114th in the country in passing offense so far this year, right between Boston College and Oklahoma. Meanwhile, the Texas defense is first in the country in passing yards allowed, on average allowing only 136.7 yards through the air per game. On paper this is a big advantage for the Longhorns and it should provide opportunities for them to force turnovers and get off the field regularly if they are able to inflict negative plays and get Kentucky off schedule offensively.

Texas faced a much more dangerous offensive attack a week ago in Fayetteville and was dominant. If they get a similar effort this week, then I like Texas’ chances to get to their 10th win of the season.

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The Texas offense vs. the Kentucky defense

This is going to be the marquee matchup of this game. Texas enters Saturday ranked 18th in the nation in total offense and 12th in the country in passing offense, while the Wildcats rank 22nd in scoring defense, 29th in total defense, and 28th in passing yards allowed.

The Texas offense has been a bit of Jeykll and Hyde, but possesses plenty of explosiveness. The Kentucky defense has shown it can throttle offenses and be disruptive and with the blueprint now out on how to give Ewers issues it wouldn’t surprise me one bit to see Kentucky duplicate the same game plan Arkansas rolled out last week. It will be imperative that Ewers and the Texas offense be sharp early and the offensive line will need to do a good job of protecting him so he can make it through his progressions.

Kentucky is 53rd in rushing defense entering this matchup. I will be curious to see how much Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian sticks with the run game and if they are able to establish some success with it early on.

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The Texas defensive front vs. the Kentucky offensive line

The Texas defensive front is coming off a big game last week against Arkansas, where they were able to tally six sacks along with nine tackles for loss. This week they oppose a Kentucky offensive line that ranks 104th in the nation in sacks allowed (27). Ironically, that is the exact amount of sacks that the Texas defense has accumulated thus far this season.

Big Alfred Collins has had himself a year and the Texas defensive tackle recorded his best game of the year last week against the Razorbacks. I wonder what he will do for an encore this week in his last regular-season game at DKR.

Kentucky struggles to protect Vandagriff and that could mean another potential big game for Texas upfront defensively. They have excelled at pressuring the quarterback and forcing turnovers this year. This is a matchup that tilts in their favor and could potentially lead to some extra possessions on Saturday.