The Kentucky Wildcats face off in the Music City Bowl on December 27th against the Clemson Tigers. This will be the Wildcats' third trip to Nashville in the post season ... can the Cats get up for one more game this year or will they fall to the Clemson Tigers?

Kentucky has been here before. Victorious in 2006 and 2007's Music City Bowls, will the Wildcats view this trip as ho-hum return trip to Nashville? That is difficult to determine, but one thing is for sure: Rich Brooks tends to have his football team's attention when it comes to bowl season.

Kentucky has never had four straight bowl appearances in school history until now.

This game will come down to two simple things: Kentucky must be able to get the ball to Derrick Locke and Randall Cobb on offense ... and not allowing the homerun pass while stopping CJ Spiller on defense.

Sounds easy enough until you look at the stats.

Players to Watch:
Kentucky Offense
QB Morgan Newton
in seven games this season (burned redshirt due to injury to starter Mike Hartline), Newton was 62/112 (55.4%, 3 interceptions) for 608 yards and five touchdowns. Newton's efficiency rating was 110.3

RB Derrick Locke
Locke rushed for 843 yards (6 TD's), had 254 yards receiving (2 TD's), and averaged 29 yards per kick-off return.

Athlete Randall Cobb
Mr. All Purpose: 537 yards rushing (10 TD's), 37 receptions for 427 yards (4 TD's), averaged 13.5 yards per punt return, and 26.5 yards per kick-off return. While not on offense, Cobb charges $5.50 per hotdog ... just kidding, but he would probably be an all-star vendor as well. First Team All SEC. Cobb is the catalyst behind the UK offense. The only knock on Cobb is he runs with the ball 'loose'. His fumbles versus the Tennessee Vols likely cost the Wildcats the game.

WR Chris Matthews
31 catches for 337 yards and two TD's (longest: 37 yards)

Kentucky's Offensive Philosophy
Keeps the defense guessing which direction the ball is being rushed. Relies on Athlete Randall Cobb and RB Derrick Locke heavily. Utilizes the short passing game to keep the defense honest.

UK has given up 15 sacks versus 300 pass attempts on the season.

Derrick Locke averages 15.9 yards per game. Randall Cobb averages 147.2 yards per game.

Clemson Offense
QB Kyle Parker
197-355 for 2385 yards and 19 TD's on the season (12 interceptions). Parker tends to be hot or cold. On the season, Parker had four games with 2+ interceptions and three games with zero interceptions. Parker does have big play ability: 33 completions of 20+ yards in 12 games. His longest pass on the season covered 77 yards.

RB CJ Spiller
Spiller received several votes for the Heisman Trophy, primarily from East Coast voters. Spiller carried the ball 201 times in the regular season for 1145 yards and 11 TD's. Spiller averaged 15.5 carries per game and averaged a total of 192.9 all purpose yardsper game.

Spiller had 41 plays (20% of his total carries) of 10+ rushing yards from scrimmage this year.

Yes, he is a big play threat:
10+ yards: 29 times
20+ yards: 12 times

Beyond Spiller, the other running backs on the team averaged a combined 10 carries per game.

WR Jacoby Ford
53 catches for 735 yards and five TD's (receptions of 20+ yards: 14) ... also averaged 1.3 reverses per game.

TE Michael Palmer
41 receptions for 468 yards and four TD's (receptions of 20+ yards: 6)

Clemson's Offensive Philosophy
Spreads the ball around. On the season, Clemson has 22 rushing touchdowns and 22 passing touchdowns.

While CJ Spiller can be a game breaker, he is not 100% of the offense. The Tigers are not afraid to stretch the field vertically in the passing game. If the WR's are zone covered to prevent the deep ball, Clemson will eat you up with the TE.

Time of Possession is not typically in Clemson's favor (28:15 for the Tigers vs 31:45 for the opponent).

Like Kentucky, Clemson has ball handling issues: 27 fumbles (lost 11).

Field position is in Clemson's favor: average start for the Tigers is the C37 yard line; the opponent's average start is on the O29 yard line.

Defense
Kentucky Defense
Micah Johnson: 100 tackles, 6.5 tfl, one sack
Corey Peters: 52 tackles, 11 tfl, four sacks
DeQuin Evans: 36 tackles, 12.5 tfl, six sacks

Clemson Defense
I will probably be jumped by the Clemson homers on this one, but simply looking at the stat sheet, no one jumps out at you immediately. On the year, no player on the Clemson team has more than 2 tackles for loss.

Common Opponents
South Carolina Gamecocks
UK lost 28-26
Clemson lost 34-17 (SC held Clemson to 48 yards rushing)

Keys to the Game:
Kentucky must not allow the Clemson receivers to get behind them. UK's pass defense should be able to lock the Tiger receivers down. At the same time, UK must stop Spiller. Do these two things and Clemson will virtually be unable to move the football. The only problem is the Wildcats have struggled against the run all season. Kentucky needs to keep the over all score in the 20's.

Clemson must stop the combination of Locke and Cobb. If Clemson can force the outcome of the game onto Morgan Newton's shoulders, the Tigers can win this game.

The Game:
The Clemson Tigers are favored over the Kentucky Wildcats by seven points.
The over/under on this game is set at 51.5 points.

I originally picked Clemson to win on my bowl pick sheet ... more of a gut feeling than anything. I keep replaying the Kentucky - Tennessee game over and over in my head ... did Kentucky play UT that well or were the Vols so riddled with injuries the game was that close?

Go ahead, call me an SEC sheep because honestly, I know better than to do this:
Kentucky 30
Clemson 26

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