Game night last night produced few surprises, but more than a little finger-pointing and mud-stirring by local pundits. Football season is officially here, and game day for the Wildcats is tomorrow.
So what's the news? Well here is a rundown of a few of the games, and their possible implications for Kentucky's season.
Murray State at Louisville
Louisville easily handled a severely overmatched Murray State University last night 73-10 to absolutely nobody's surprise. Murray State isn't just a I-AA team, they are a I-AA team that went 1-10 last year and is clearly in a rebuilding mode. Even so, the Racers surprisingly scored on the Cardinals, and did so in the first half.
Of course, some people can find a way to blame UK even after a rousing victory, and not unexpectedly, Eric Crawford of the Courier-Journal steps into the breach. According to Crawford it seems that, no matter how hard they tried, the Cards couldn't get anybody with better than a 1-10 record in Division I-AA to come to big, bad Papa John's stadium to play them. And that fault, according to Crawford, lies 70 miles up I-64:
I'd take U of L to task, but what were they to do? U of L was all set to open on the road at a Southeastern Conference opponent, but that team decided it couldn't get ready to play the Cardinals on opening weekend.
Well, Eric, heaven forfend that you should criticize the Cardinals. After all, with Kentucky finally doing what Rich Brooks told everybody he intended to do since he came here, why not take cheap shots at UK?
And just so Eric doesn't run out of reading material, maybe he would want to have a look at this article by John Henderson of the Denver Post. Of course, I don't expect Crawford to agree, but just so we have a little balance of opinion around here. If by some chance Kentucky does handle Louisville at Commonwealth Stadium in a couple of weeks, I'm sure his line will be "Well, this wouldn't have happened if they hadn't moved the game." That's the idea, Eric.
LSU at Mississippi State
In case any of you were thinking maybe MSU had a chance in this game, 45-0 aught to convince you otherwise. In case you have forgotten, we won in Starkville last year 34-31. True, we are better this year, but so is MSU.
I guess you can say that we are going to have to be a lot better when LSU rolls into town October 13th, or we might be facing a shutout, just like the 49-0 pasting in the bayou last year. LSU is putting the SEC on notice - they will suffer no rival. I have a feeling there will be more than just this one shutout pitched by the Bayou Bengals this year. LSU is for real.
Kent State at Iowa State
Kent State handled the home-standing Cyclones 23-14. This game should be a warning to Kentucky -- Kent State is no Murray State, and the second game on our schedule will be a true early test. Kent State is no powerhouse, and Iowa State is rebuilding from a 4-win season last year, but they are perfectly capable of beating us, and this is a reminder.
Kent State may be a "mid major", and the bottom of the Big 12 is no great shakes, but if we had already penciled in Kent as a "W", we might want to rethink that. The Wildcats will have to come to play against the Golden Flashes.
By the way, you can find these and lots of other stories in my Google reader feed by scrolling down to the bottom left of the blog, in the green box. Just in case you didn't read the earlier announcement.
