2017 Music City Bowl Preview

Read Time:3 Minute, 18 Second

It’s time for the annual Franklin Amercian Mortgage Music City Bowl and Nashville is ready to go. This is the 20th edition of the event and it will feature the Kentucky Wildcats and the No. 21 Wildcats of Northwestern University.

Northwestern:

Northwestern comes into this contest on a seven-game winning streak and finished the year at 9-3. Their offense relies heavily on a running attack that is led by tailback, Justin Jackson. He would finish the year with 1,154 yards and has one more outing to add to his 5,283 total career yards. He is only the second player in Big Ten history to rush for more than 1,000 yards in four straight seasons.

Quarterback, Clayton Thorson, has been able to take advantage of Jackson’s ground support by throwing for 2,809 yards, 15 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions. Although he doesn’t have a key go-to guy, he did distribute the ball to many of his receivers. Look for him to go the same route Friday.

Head coach Pat Fitzgerald talked about how his offensive line has improved over the second half of the season. The line has won many battles in the trenches over the last few weeks of the season. His defense has been stout allowing just one touchdown over the last two weeks. Linebacker, Paddy Fisher, leads his team with 110 tackles and a front that allowed just over 100 yards per game on the ground to their opponents.

The plan would appear to be simple for Northwestern. Control the line of scrimmage and allow Jackson and Thorson to do their thing. Of course, this will have to be done in front of what should be a packed house full of faithful blue Kentucky fans.

Kentucky:

For the Wildcats of Kentucky, it began with a bowl game last year they would soon like to forget. In that game, Kentucky did not show up for the TaxSlayer Bowl that afternoon and they got stomped by Georgia Tech by a tune of 33-18. It has been said that they were still running high off their huge win in their season finale against Louisville and it cost them the game.

On Friday, this match-up will mean a lot to the Kentucky players. Head coach Mark Stoops will make sure of that. He is still fuming from the two regular season-ending blowouts at the hands of Georgia and Louisville by a combined score of 86-30. The coach has been pushing his team hard in practices leading up to this game, and is calling them “hungry” for this one. That’s what they will have to be to compete.

They will turn to RB Benny Snell to get the offense going. He had a great year with 1,318 yards and 18 rushing touchdowns. Quarterback Stephen Johnson made the most of Snell’s ability by throwing for 2,048 yards, 10 touchdowns with just four picks. His number one target is Garrett Johnson who finished the regular season with 46 catches for 500 yards.

Defensively, Kentucky has been hurting for most of the year. They have given up 40 points three times and could stop no one in the second half of the year. Unfortunately, that will not do against a Northwestern team capable of running the ball down Kentucky’s throat. Players such as Mike Edwards, Josh Allen, and Denzil Ware will have to be at their best and put all kinds of pressure on Thorson and the Northwestern offense.

It will be interesting to see how packed Nissan Stadium will be for this game as the Kentucky vs Louisville basketball game will be on at the same time. Otherwise, you can bet the house will be full.

This is Kentucky’s fifth appearance in this bowl. They are 2-2 and look to get that third win against Northwestern.