The Kentucky Wildcats’ faith in Mark Stoops was rewarded with a trip to the Gator Bowl last season. There is even more optimism heading into 2016 as Stoops enters his fifth season on the job. Kentucky has 17 returning starters and a manageable non-conference schedule to work with in an SEC East that is still without a dominant team. The Wildcats will start their season on the road against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles, a team they lost to at the start of the 2016 campaign.
This contest in Week 1 of the regular season will go down Saturday, September 2, 2017, at 4
p.m. ET at Roberts Stadium in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The game will be broadcast on CBS Sports.
College Football Opening Odds at BookMaker.eu
Kentucky -10
Southern Miss +10
Over/Under 57.5
Odds Analysis
Southern Miss went 6-6 in the regular season in 2016, but won its bowl game to finish with a winning record. The Golden Eagles were awful against the spread down the stretch following a solid September. They failed to cover in seven straight games and won just two of those affairs straight up. In four of those seven, they entered the game as a favorite, but lost outright.
The Wildcats looked destined to continue to fall short of expectations after losing to Southern Miss and getting crushed by Florida to start last year. However, Kentucky responded shortly afterwards by winning four of its next five in SEC play and covered all five of those games too. They even got a huge season-ending win as a 27-point underdog against arch rival Louisville.
Last Year’s Meeting
When these teams met last season, the Wildcats looked like they had things in hand late in the first half. Kentucky was leading 35-10 with less than a minute to play in the second quarter, but then Southern Miss started its incredible comeback. The Golden Eagles scored the next 28 points in 15 minutes of gameplay and ended up with a victory after scoring 34 unanswered points.
The key to this victory was a running game that shredded the Wildcats. Although quarterback Nick Mullens threw three picks on the day, the combination of Ito Smith and George Payne was too much. The duo combined to carry the ball 52 times for 273 yards and a score and Kentucky didn’t have an answer on how to stop them. That led to Southern Miss controlling the ball for over 40 minutes and didn’t allow Kentucky back in the game.
Drew Barker had a great game under center for the Wildcats but was unable to get the ball moving and sustain drives in the second half. He finished with 323 yards through the air and four touchdowns, but that wasn’t enough.
Player to Watch
Barker was injured in the third week of the 2016 season and gone for the rest of the year. Stephen Johnson filled in admirably for Barker and was just announced as the starter heading into 2017.
Johnson doesn’t have the arm talent that Barker has, but is competent enough and is more of a running option than his counterpart. It took Johnson a few games to get going last season, but he eventually figured it out and had a phenomenal performance against Louisville. Barker will likely see time at some point, but Johnson is the main man for now.
Free ATS Pick
Southern Miss has a big hole to fill with the loss of Nick Mullens. Although he struggled early on against Kentucky last season, he eventually found his footing and led this offense to success throughout the year.
The Golden Eagles haven’t announced a starter at quarterback for this game. Keon Harris is the likely starter, but completed just 44 percent of his passes last season and threw four interceptions on just 50 pass attempts. He is much more of a running threat than Mullens was, but is a very inconsistent passer.
College Football Odds: Wildcats 34, Golden Eagles 17
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