Kentucky
First Down Kentucky: Win the Week
Assessing How Hot Billy Napier’s Seat Is Following Loss To Miami
Kentucky handled its business Week 1 in a shutout victory against Southern Miss. Week 2 brings a sizable game with some stakes. The Wildcats have lost consecutive games to South Carolina and cannot afford that to become a three-game losing streak with the remaining schedule ahead.
Saturday will be a big moment for the program, but Kentucky needs to win its preparation before winning the football game.
“We gotta win the week. Last week was last week,” Kentucky defensive coordinator Brad White said. “Nice job there by rising up in the red zone when we had the opportunity to do it but that’s last week.”
All attention is now on South Carolina. KSR’s First Down Kentucky is back to provide a full practice report after speaking with the defense after Wednesday’s practice.
Kentucky must slow down the QB run
Expect South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers to draw comparisons to Cam Newton, Tim Tebow, Dak Prescott, and Anthony Richardson throughout the 2024 season. The redshirt freshman is still growing as a passer, but Sellers is already a dangerous runner. In his first start, Sellers rumbled for 100 yards on 18 non-sack carries.
Kentucky must be ready to slow down the QB run.
“A really talented quarterback. Yes, one that may had some first game jitters. Anticipate him coming in ready to just light it up. He’s got all the tools,” Brad White said about Sellers. “He’s got the arm strength, he’s got the legs.”
“When a Q can run, it adds that extra dimension and it forces you to have to do some different things. Or play with a little bit of a different mentality.”
White pointed out that the QB run adds an extra gap in the running game and that Kentucky’s front would have to play more than their gap in run fits to shut down running lanes. Star tailback Rocket Sanders will get his touches but Sellers’ legs appear to be the biggest strength on the South Carolina offense.
“We’ve got our work cut out for us,” White said.
Kentucky needs more from the safety position
Expectations were high for Kentucky’s safety group entering the 2024 season. The Wildcats returned three players who played big snaps last season and added an SEC transfer to the room. Kentucky needs this group to be a positional strength.
That wasn’t the case in Week 1. Kentucky will need better play from the safety position moving forward.
“I thought they all got a chance to get in, and rotate, and played with some different combos. I do think maybe some played better than others,” Brad White told the media. “Again, it’s first game and sometimes there’s jitters. There’s some things we’ve gotta get cleaned up there — and they will.”
The safeties will play a big role this week helping fit the run and limiting explosives in the passing game. Kentucky will need a bounce-back week from an important position.
Weather delays are stressful
The wait was long for everyone on Saturday night in the Bluegrass. Mother Nature caused a multiple-hour delay that forced thousands to wait out a lighting delay. The fans were enjoying music, a stadium light show, and the Notre Dame vs. Texas A&M game on the jumbotrons.
While all that was going on, Brad White was trying to remain calm.
“He stresses,” White joked. “It was interesting. Everybody did a little bit of something. You walk around and then you realize it’s going to be extended. You sort of sit down and luckily some other games are on at that time so you can try and take your mind off it.
White mentioned that watching football only reminded him of different situational scenarios that his team may need to know. The defensive coordinator had to take a step back and remain calm in the moment. Not playing a game can be as stressful as playing in one.
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Over the weekend, it was reported that the Kentucky Wildcats and coach Mark Pope had interest in former James Madison forward Justin McBride. Now, per Jacob Polacheck of Kentucky Sports Radio, McBride will take a visit to Lexington.
The report states that McBride will visit with Kentucky on Wednesday, Apr. 22. He had previously stated that he wanted to visit, but had to clear up some transcript issues first. It appears that things are worked out there now.
McBride is a 6’8″, 230 lb forward who has versatility. He averaged 15.3 points and 5.6 rebounds last season, but also made 40% of his three-point attempts, making him the kind of stretch big Pope likes to use. He could start, or be a valuable player off the bench.
Pope needs some recruiting wins, and he needs some depth for next year’s team. Right now, there are still more questions than answers, and Big Blue Nation is getting restless. We will update this story after his visit and more news becomes available.
Entering the weekend, Vanderbilt baseball had gotten swept in its only SEC series in which it hadn’t won the first game.
So the Commodores had a tough task in a series they badly needed after dropping the opener 5-2 on a walk-off grand slam after Vanderbilt’s best healthy starter, Connor Fennell, pitched well.
But the Commodores (24-17, 9-9 SEC) rebounded to take the series with an 8-7 win in the second game and a 13-6 win in the finale April 19. They did that despite not having any pitcher go more than three innings in either game. Though the pitching was still shaky at times — they issued more free passes than strikeouts in both of the wins — they worked out of enough jams to let the offense go to work.
Here’s what we learned from the series.
Will Hampton proves an unlikely hero for the offense
Vanderbilt got strong performances from a few of its typical top performers, including Braden Holcomb (6-for-13, four doubles) and Brodie Johnston (4-for-12, two home runs, three walks). But one of the biggest hits of the series came from the unlikeliest of sources.
Logan Johnstone was held out of the finale after colliding with Mike Mancini in Game 2, and in his place coach Tim Corbin opted to go with redshirt freshman Will Hampton in left field. Hampton had recorded just six college plate appearances, all of which were in nonconference games.
But Hampton reached in all three of his plate appearances against Kentucky, first on a single, then a walk. In the sixth inning, with the score tied, he came up with the bases loaded and two outs and blasted a grand slam, giving Vanderbilt its first lead.
Tyler Baird learns the ups and downs of being a closer
Freshman Tyler Baird has been Vanderbilt’s closer for the past three weeks, recording his first save April 2 against Texas A&M. But he learned the pitfalls that can come with that role in Game 1 against Kentucky. Summoned for an eight-out save with the Commodores leading 2-1, he retired the first five batters, but loaded the bases with nobody out in the ninth. He struck out the next two batters but then gave up the walk-off grand slam.
Baird returned for Game 3, this time attempting a five-out save and coming in with runners on first and second and one out with a three-run lead in the eighth inning. He allowed both inherited runners to score, but kept the lead and then had a scoreless ninth inning after Vanderbilt scored three runs in the top of the inning.
Baird’s emergence has been key for the Commodores, and the Game 3 bounce-back was especially important.
Vanderbilt’s RPI shows improvement
On April 15, Vanderbilt was 95th in RPI, a mark that wasn’t going to cut it for NCAA Tournament selection. But with a road series win against a Kentucky team that started the week in the top 20 of RPI, the Commodores moved all the way up to 75th, according to Warren Nolan.
While Vanderbilt will need to keep moving up — a top-50 mark would be ideal — the series win did a lot. In the next two weeks, it will face two top-five RPI teams in Alabama and Texas, giving more opportunity to improve its standing.
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on X @aria_gerson.
Power forward has been one of the positions that Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats have to fill with Andrija Jelavic and Mo Dioubate gone. The two players that Pope has had on campus at the power forward position are Syracuse’s Donnie Freeman and Colorado’s Sebastian Rancik. Both are really good players, but Freeman is better by a wide margin.
It has felt that entire time that Kentucky wanted Rancik as the backup to Freeman or a backup plan if they weren’t able to land Freeman. Well, Rancik just picked Florida State, so perhaps this is a sign that the Wildcats will land Freeman.
Big Blue Nation was torn on Rancik, but I do believe he would have been a really solid backup power forward. I personally didn’t want him to be the starting four for this team. It is clear that he wanted to go somewhere where he could be the guy at the four, so he will be heading to the ACC to play for FSU.
Now that Kentucky has missed on Rancik, it is very important that the Wildcats land Freeman soon. The problem with waiting on some of these players is the fact that the portal isn’t slowing down. If Pope targets two power forwards and misses on both of them, most of the good fours in the portal will be gone.
There will be some panic in Lexington if the Wildcats are not able to land Freeman, but I do believe the Wildcats are in a good spot to land the elite power forward. From the beginning, Freeman has been my top player for Kentucky in the portal, as he, plus Malachi Moreno, will give the Wildcats an elite frontcourt.
If Pope is able to land Freeman and Tyran Stokes to pair with Zoom Diallo, Alex Wilkins, Moreno, and Kam Williams, this could be the start of a really good team in Lexington. Hopefully, an announcement for where Freeman will transfer comes soon, and hopefully, this will be to play for Pope at Kentucky.
Fans of rival teams will say Pope “whiffed” on Rancik, but if this whiff was because the Wildcats are set to land Freeman soon, then it was more than worth it for Kentucky. If the Wildcats are able to land Freeman, it will officially be time for Big Blue Nation to start getting excited about the 2026-27 season. I expect a decision from Freeman to come within the next day or two.
Rancik would have been a solid backup four in Lexington but Freeman has been the guy from the beggining for this staff so if Kentucky lands him all is well. If the staff misses on Freeman not landing Rancik will look bad.
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