Shane Beamer traveled to Lexington, Kentucky, ready to hold on the rim.
South Carolina’s soccer coach busted out the white-rimmed sun shades he packed for the journey and danced throughout a locker-room celebration of the Gamecocks’ 24-14 win at Kentucky whereas his gamers sang “Flip My Swag On.”
“That was a joyous, joyous locker room,” Beamer informed me Wednesday.
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The locker-room scene was a remix of the preseason dance Beamer filmed carrying these sun shades whereas Soulja Boy’s 2008 hit tune performed. South Carolina launched that clip on social media to hype Beamer’s SEC media days look. That preceded this quote from Kentucky’s Mark Stoops:
“Dance round, placed on some silly sun shades, and you may change a local weather, however to vary a tradition, it is on the core,” Stoops informed the SEC Community in the summertime.
Consider this: A Kentucky season as soon as filled with nice expectations is on life assist after struggling an embarrassing loss to Beamer’s Gamecocks.
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“Any person talked about to me at the start of the week, ‘Hey, take these sun shades for after the sport, if we have been to win.’ So, I assume early within the week, I felt like, if we’re lucky sufficient to win that sport, it’s one thing I could do,” Beamer stated. “Having stated that, let me say this, too: I’ve bought tons of respect for Coach Stoops and his program and the best way they do issues. I had an incredible dialog with Mark earlier than the sport about that incident from media days.
“As a head coach, although, you’re all the time searching for further motivation in your guys every week.”
Motivation, apparently, has been a difficulty for Kentucky.
“Challenged them each week about excessive vitality,” Stoops stated Monday, when requested a couple of lack of juice in opposition to the Gamecocks. “I assume I may discuss it till I’m blue within the face, however they higher do one thing about it.”
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Stoops, too, higher do one thing about his group’s freefall.
After absorbing back-to-back losses to Ole Miss and South Carolina, No. 17 Mississippi State will come to Lexington on Saturday with an opportunity to shovel filth on Kentucky’s season.
Whether or not he supposed to or not, Stoops’ chutzpa raised the bar of expectationsthis summer season after he scoffed at John Calipari’s truthful assertion that UK is a basketball faculty.
Stoops, to his credit score, achieved two 10-win seasons up to now 4 years, and the Wildcats entered this yr ranked within the AP’s preseason Prime 25 for the primary time since 1978, then climbed as excessive as No. 7 within the AP rankings earlier than spiraling.
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Quarterback Will Levis being sidelined with harm in opposition to South Carolina restricted the Wildcats, however Levis performed the earlier week, when UK mustered 19 factors in opposition to Ole Miss. Levis’ absence didn’t trigger Kentucky to fumble on its first play in opposition to South Carolina or contribute to continued particular groups gaffes.
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The Wildcats’ struggles date to a slim win over Northern Illinois to complete September.
Stoops’ group couldn’t beat the person within the shades, and are available Sunday, after a sport in opposition to Mike Leach’s surging Bulldogs, will probably be time for basketball season in Lexington.
Alabama soccer’s further weapon? Derek Dooley
Tennessee serves as a breeding floor for Alabama teaching employees analysts.
First, fired Vols coach Butch Jones labored as an Alabama analyst – coach Nick Saban initially dubbed Jones “an intern” – for 3 seasons. Now, former Tennessee coach Derek Dooley is in his first season as an analyst on Saban’s employees.
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By the best way, has anybody seen Jeremy Pruitt recently?
Dooley ranks among the many worst coaches in Tennessee historical past, fired amid his third season in 2012. Saban’s Crimson Tide went 3-0 in opposition to Dooley’s Vols, profitable by precisely 31 factors every time.
“They have been all the time troublesome to play in opposition to,” Saban stated Wednesday, with no trace of the sarcasm required to make such an evaluation.
Dooley has change into “a very good sounding board” for Saban.
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Vols followers needs to be so fortunate.
In reality, the Vols might lastly have a coach, Josh Heupel, ready to match wits with Alabama’s mastermind in a conflict of undefeated groups on Saturday at Neyland Stadium.
E mail of the week
Steve writes: Comprehend it’s an extended shot, but when anybody who has BAMA-Tennessee tix they wish to do away with, I wish to purchase them.
My response: I don’t have a line on tickets, however when you promote each kidneys and a liver, you would possibly be capable to rating some. Must be a enjoyable one. Hope you land some tickets.
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Three and out
1. Lane Kiffin stated he “most likely ought to have taken a knee” as a substitute of holding the pedal down in opposition to Vanderbilt final Saturday. Stroll-on Matt Jones plunged into the tip zone with 18 seconds remaining for a 24-point victory. The landing allowed Ole Miss to cowl the purpose unfold, though Kiffin did not point out that amongst his motivations for attempting to attain. No want for Kiffin to fret about unwritten guidelines of sportsmanship. His run-it-up strategy will make him extra endearing to Ole Miss followers, plus gamblers who had the Rebels to cowl the unfold. If an opponent does not desire a walk-on to attain a landing, then play some protection.
2.Brian Kelly’s assessment of life within the SEC: “Common goes to get you beat,” LSU’s first-year coach stated. Is dependent upon the opponent, I say. A median LSU efficiency was sufficient to beat lowly Auburn. A awful LSU efficiency resulted in Tennessee beating the doorways off the Tigers. Two common groups will meet Saturday within the Swamp.
3. Johnny Manziel caused a stir when he dubbed Jimbo Fisher’s play name “one of many worst calls I’ve ever seen in my life,” after Texas A&M’s incomplete move to the sideline from the 2-yard line on the ultimate play of Saturday’s 24-20 loss to Alabama. Whereas I do not applaud the play name, I feel Manziel’s critique misses the forest for the bushes: Fisher, a one-time quarterback guru, has not recruited or developed elite quarterbacks at Texas A&M. Had a quarterback of Manziel’s ilk been in uniform at Bryant-Denny Stadium, the Aggies would have gained with ease, no matter play-calling.
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Blake Toppmeyer is an SEC Columnist for the USA TODAY Community. E mail him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and comply with him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.
The“Topp Rope,” is his twice-weekly SEC soccer column publishing all through the USA TODAY Community. When you get pleasure from Blake’s protection, contemplate a digital subscription that may enable you entry to all of it. Additionally, take a look at his podcast, SEC Soccer Unfiltered, or entry unique columns through the SEC Unfiltered e-newsletter.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Rivalry week has finally arrived. The Louisville and Kentucky football program are set to do battle once again, facing off in Lexington for the annual Battle for the Governor’s Cup.
Here are the depth charts for both the Cardinals and Wildcats:
Changes from Louisville’s Depth Chart vs. Pitt:
Quarterback
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9 Tyler Shough (6-5, 230, Gr.) 10 Pierce Clarkson (6-1, 190, R-Fr.) OR 15 Harrison Bailey (6-5, 230, R-Sr.) OR 12 Brady Allen (6-6, 220, R-So)
Running Back
25 Isaac Brown (5-9, 190, Fr.) 21 Donald Chaney Jr. (5-10, 210, R-Jr.) 26 Duke Watson (6-0, 180, Fr.) 22 Keyjuan Brown (5-10, 210, R-Fr.)
Wide Receiver
0 Chris Bell (6-2, 220, Jr.) 81 Cataurus Hicks (5-10, 180, R-Fr.)
Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (3-2) at Kentucky Wildcats (5-0)
Lexington, Kentucky; Tuesday, 6:30 p.m. EST
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BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Wildcats -22.5; over/under is 164
BOTTOM LINE: No. 8 Kentucky takes on Western Kentucky after Koby Brea scored 22 points in Kentucky’s 108-59 win over the Jackson State Tigers.
The Wildcats have gone 4-0 at home. Kentucky is 10th in college basketball averaging 12.6 made 3-pointers per game while shooting 42.3% from downtown. Brea leads the team averaging 4.0 makes while shooting 74.1% from 3-point range.
The Hilltoppers are 0-1 in road games. Western Kentucky ranks third in the CUSA shooting 37.4% from 3-point range.
Kentucky scores 97.0 points, 24.2 more per game than the 72.8 Western Kentucky allows. Western Kentucky averages 9.8 made 3-pointers per game this season, 3.8 more made shots on average than the 6.0 per game Kentucky gives up.
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TOP PERFORMERS: Brea is shooting 74.1% from beyond the arc with 4.0 made 3-pointers per game for the Wildcats, while averaging 16 points.
Julius Thedford averages 2.4 made 3-pointers per game for the Hilltoppers, scoring 11.4 points while shooting 54.5% from beyond the arc.
___
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
Mark Stoops owns a five-game winning streak in the Governor’s Cup series. The Wildcats have won three games in a row at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium and have not lost to Louisville at Kroger Field since 2017 when Bobby Petrino was holding the call sheet and and Lamar Jackson was playing quarterback. The Wildcats have also covered a lot of spreads in this series.
Stoops is 7-2-1 against-the-spread (ATS) in this series with with covers as a double-digit dog in 2014 and 2016. Kentucky has beaten Louisville outright as a dog three times since 2016 and has covered five straight in this series. Those are not the only trends going in Kentucky’s direction heading into this Week 14 contest.
Louisville is 0-4-1 ATS as a road favorite under Jeff Brohm with outright losses to Pittsburgh and Stanford. Kentucky is 5-0-1 ATS as a dog in its last six outing including four games this season. Kentucky covered numbers as a double-digit dog against Georgia, Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Texas this season.
The visitor is 11-3-1 ATS (5-10 outright) in the last 14 meetings of this series with 10 outright wins but Kentucky has won the last two meetings at Kroger Field covering each times as a three-point favorite. In 2019, Kentucky ran away for a 45-13 victory and cruised to a 26-13 victory in 2022.
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Kentucky has consistently overachieved pregame expectations in this series. The Wildcats are currently a 3.5-point dog with a total of 48.5. That’s a projected final score of 26-22.5. Will UK exceed expectations again against Louisville? A win would equal four outright upsets for the Big Blue in the last eight meetings of the series.
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