Tennessee has five games remaining in its regular season, and coach Josh Heupel would prefer to avoid discussion about the 12-team postseason playoff.
Of course, that’s a hard issue to sidestep these days.
What Heupel knows is that the No. 7 Volunteers need to keep winning and can’t avoid a stumble when they battle Kentucky on Saturday night in Southeastern Conference play at Knoxville, Tenn.
Tennessee (6-1, 3-1 SEC) was upset by Arkansas on Oct. 5 and has a mid-November matchup at No. 2 Georgia. So leaving the field victorious this weekend is paramount as the Volunteers look to brighten their resume.
“You make your case by going and controlling what you control, which is your performance on Saturdays,” Heupel said Monday at his press conference. “Your preparation takes you there. We’re halfway through the conference schedule. There’s a ton of football left.
“If you are worried about the end result, you’re going to make the mistakes you can’t afford on the way to the end. … You guys hear me say it, players hear me say it: Good teams continue to get better. Our best football is still out in front of us, and we have to go chase that.”
Tennessee is coming off a bye after posting a 24-17 home win over then-No. 7 Alabama on Oct. 19.
The Volunteers have won 36 of the past 39 meetings against Kentucky (3-5, 1-5), including one victory that was vacated due to NCAA sanctions.
The Wildcats have lost their past three games.
Kentucky fell 24-10 to visiting Auburn last Saturday as Jarquez Hunter shredded the Wildcats’ defense with a career-high 278 rushing yards and two touchdowns. He had a 45-yard scoring run and non-scoring jaunts of 50 and 46 yards.
Wildcats defensive coordinator Brad White was direct on Monday when he and offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan handled the press conference duties with head coach Mark Stoops away to attend his mother’s funeral.
“Collectively, we’re all embarrassed by that performance, especially against the run,” White said.
He said he expects an improvement this weekend despite Tennessee’s long dominance of the series.
“Regardless of the team that we’re playing on Saturday, we have to play better,” White said. “We have to be efficient in terms of how we play defense. We can’t have a couple of good plays, then we give up an explosive one.”
Tennessee star running back Dylan Sampson likely will be eager to see the Kentucky defense on the field. He has topped 100 yards on six occasions this season, ranks third nationally with 17 rushing touchdowns and has 838 rushing yards.
The Volunteers’ defense ranks third nationally in opponents’ scoring (average of 11.6 points per game) and total defense (259 yards per game).
Linebacker Kalib Perry expects a big effort against the Wildcats, who are dealing with a quarterback quandary.
“When we give up points, we are not satisfied,” Perry said. “It just makes us more hungry. We know it is just little things that go a long way in a game, so we cannot give the opponents a step.”
Stoops pulled starting quarterback Brock Vandagriff at halftime against Auburn with the score tied at 10 after the junior threw for 120 yards and one interception on 9-of-17 passing.
However, backup Gavin Wimsatt fared even worse, going 3 of 10 for 34 yards and one interception. Kentucky didn’t score in the second half.
Hamdan wasn’t ready to anoint a starter on Monday.
“We’re evaluating everything,” he said. “We’re getting back with those guys and want to get face-to-face with them. We’ll address that moving forward.”
–Field Level Media
