STARKVILLE — The Kentucky football team is already making history and on the brink of even more. No. 14 Mississippi State (3-0) stands in its way.
The 3-0 Wildcats have started that way in back-to-back seasons for the first time in over a decade and broke a 31-year losing streak to Florida as they went. Beating MSU 6 p.m. Saturday (ESPN2) would give the program its first 4-0 start in 10 years and its first 2-0 start to Southeastern Conference play since 1977. MSU defensive coordinator Bob Shoop has seen the transformation at each stage: this is his third consecutive year coaching against the Wildcats given his two years at Tennessee prior to joining the Bulldogs.
“Just watching their evolution over the last few years has been fun to watch if you’re a fan of football,” he said.
That evolution is most obvious in the caliber of player that now calls Kroger Field home.
Mark Stoops took over the Wildcats after the 2012 season; of the four recruiting classes before him and the one he inherited, only one had been ranked in the top 40 by the 247 Sports Composite. Beginning in 2013, every Kentucky recruiting class has met that threshold, with some coming as high as 22nd in 2014 and 30th in 2017.
“It’s going to be a huge challenge for us, obviously. You can see by their roster they’ve recruited speed, size, length and athleticism and they’ve done an excellent job developing the talent,” MSU coach Joe Moorhead said. “Right now they’re playing with a ton of confidence.”
A good bit of that confidence comes from the junior college transfer that’s taken a hold of its starting quarterback role.
Terry Wilson’s college football career started at Oregon, but he is now Kentucky’s after a stint at Garden City Community College in Kansas. His first three games with the Wildcats have proven why he was such a hot commodity out of Del City High School on the outskirts of Oklahoma City. He is completing 69.5 percent of his passes while taking 32 carries — second on the team by no small margin — for 223 yards, 6.97 yards per carry, and two touchdowns.
“I’ve been very pleased with Terry and his growth,” Stoops said on the SEC teleconference. “He definitely feels more comfortable with every opportunity and every rep within games. I thought he made a big jump between game one and game two and had a very good game this past week, as well. He’s a guy that really wants to be great, puts a lot of time in and puts extra time in. It’s good to see that and it’s evident with the way he’s improving.”
Kentucky boasts a dangerous backfield when paired with running back Benny Snell Jr., regarded as one of the best in the SEC after rushing for more than 1,000 yards in each of his first two seasons.
Moorhead recognizes the job Kentucky offensive coordinator Eddie Gran and his staff do to ensure Snell has productive touches, despite a given defense’s strategy to bottle him up. He also sees similarities in his own offense as to how Kentucky does it.
“I think they’re very similar in terms of the construct,” Moorhead said. “I’ve always said success in the run game is based on numbers, angles and grass, and I think both offenses do a good job of reading second- and third-level defenders and attempting to put them in conflict.”
It is all boosted by an offensive line that Shoop says, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” It returns four players that started last season and has a USC transfer, E.J. Price, taking the one spot fully void of returning starting experience.
Stoops’ hope is to pair that offensive line with its defensive counterparts, flanked by Josh Allen as an edge linebacker, that can make the Wildcats a team known for its line play.
“They both graded out very, very good,” Stoops said of the win over Florida. “Overall, I think it was one of the better games we’ve played with both groups, the offensive line and the defensive line, it was extremely physical.”
With all of those pieces, this is one of the better Kentucky teams MSU will have faced in a while and both teams seem to know it. In scouting the Wildcats, MSU quarterback Nick Fitzgerald didn’t notice schematical changes from last year’s 45-7 Bulldog win.
He knows this is simply a team with better players and he will have to adjust accordingly.
“A lot of different looks, but they always seem to have six or seven dudes in the box, so you’re going to have to throw the ball on them if you want to move it,” Fitzgerald said. “They’re going to get in man coverage and say, ‘Beat us.'”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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