You had to figure that there would be some kind of response from Kentucky football to what SEC Network/ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum said Monday about UK’s season being over after an 0-2 start and it’s time for UK fans to get ready for basketball season. You also had to figure the Kentucky coach most likely to respond would be recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow. He’s never been afraid to answer critics of Kentucky football — and way more often than not he’s been right.
Marrow shared his thoughts about what Finebaum had to say with a Twitter message:
“Wow @UKFootball you just got called out. I believe in this staff and players so lets do what we do best block out the noise and let’s go to work. This isn’t the first time we had to SHUT people up. Go Big Blue.”
However, this time some of the negative talk about UK football came about because the Cats were citing a lack of respect in preseason rankings and projections. Even with a 10-game Southeastern Conference schedule, Kentucky seemed set to not just survive but make noise with 17 starters returning and the deepest overall roster in UK football history.
Instead, UK has been plagued by turnovers and mental mistakes in a 29-13 loss to Auburn and 42-41 overtime loss to Mississippi. That brings UK to a must-win game with Mike Leach and Mississippi State Saturday night in Lexington. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. on the SEC Network.
Lose this game and there will be no shutting up the critics. Even if UK wins, the critics are not going to be back on the Cat bandwagon because Kentucky is a slight favorite. However, Kentucky needs any kind of win — even Marrow would agree with that — or what Finebaum said is going to be repeated by a lot more national media members the next few weeks.
