Blue White Illustrated

P O S T S E A S O N P R E V I E W >> P E N N S T A T E as McSorley's backup, completing 8 of 11 passes for 110 yards with one TD in seven games. Penn State's top two pass-catch- ers have freshman eligibility: WR K.J. Hamler and TE Pat Freiermuth. Hamler has 41 catches for 713 yards and >ve TDs, while Freiermuth has 24 for 330 yards and seven TDs. As the season has gone on, he has become McSorley's leading red zone target. Juwan Johnson has 23 catches for 339 yards and one TD, Sanders has 22 for 132 yards, and DeAndre Thomp- kins has 21 for 255 yards. One other noteworthy Penn State re- ceiver is Jahan Dotson. The true freshman saw his role expand in the second half of the season. In the regular-season >nale against Maryland, Dotson started at the slot receiver spot, and he has also been sharing the Z position with Hamler. Going into the bowl game, he has 12 catches for 179 yards. Kentucky >nished the regular season with one of the top three pass de- fenses in the SEC. The Wildcats have allowed opponents to complete only 58.4 of their passes and surrendered just 12 TDs through the air. The one disappointment here is that they've totaled only eight interceptions. One of the most interesting things about Kentucky's defensive back>eld is its size. Corner- backs Derrick Baity and Lonnie Johnson are both listed at 6- 3. West is 6-2, 210 pounds, while Edwards goes 6-0, 206. This is a tall secondary. West leads the team with three intercep- tions, and Edwards has two. Up front, Kentucky has posted 32 sacks, nearly half of them by Allen. // KEY MATCHUPS Allen has said he has no intention of sitting out this game, so the Nittany Lions will have a major challenge on their hands as they work to give McSorley a clean pocket. Two other interest- ing matchups will pit Baity against Hamler and West against Freiermuth. The two defensive backs like to play physical man-to-man defense and will challenge Penn State's top two receiving threats. // EDGE EVEN KENTUCKY RUN GAME 201.3 YPG, 4.9 YPC PENN STATE RUN DEFENSE 168.4 YPG, 4.0 YPC THE LOWDOWN Kentucky likes to dictate the tempo of the game by using a ball- control power rushing attack. The Wild- cats run the ball on 70 percent of their o?ensive plays, with two players – All-SEC RB Benny Snell Jr. and QB Terry Wilson – getting the majority of the carries. Snell has rushed for 1,305 yards and 14 touchdowns, averaging 5.0 yards per attempt. He recently announced that he will forgo his >nal season to enter the NFL Dra@, but he plans to play in the bowl. Wilson, a sophomore, has 518 yards and four rushing TDs. In addition, backup RB Asim Rose has carried 67 times for 433 yards and >ve TDs. The Wildcats aren't as in- clined to use the jet sweep as some other opponents Penn State has faced this season, but WR Lynn Bowden Jr. has car- ried eight times for 25 yards. The Lions' run defense has been a mixed bag for most of the season, as they rank eighth in the Big Ten. But they seemed to hit their stride in November, es- pecially in the regular-season >nale against Maryland in which they held the Terrapins to 74 yards on 36 carries. Fresh- man OLB Micah Parsons is the Lions' leading tackler with 69 stops, including four tackles for loss. MLB Jan Johnson is next with 66 tackles, followed by SS Garrett Taylor with 61, OLB Cam Brown with 60 (and 6.5 TFL), FS Nick Scott with 59 and DE Yetur Gross-Matos with 54. Gross-Matos has en- joyed a breakout season, totaling 20 tackles for loss through 12 games. As a team, Penn State leads the Big Ten with 100 tack- les for loss. What Penn State's starting defensive line – Gross- Matos, fellow DE Shareef Miller and defensive tackles Robert Windsor and Kevin Givens – have accomplished so far is remarkable. That starting four has combined for 53.5 tackles for loss. In addition to Gross-Matos's 20, Miller has 14, Windsor 11 and Givens 8.5. // KEY MATCHUPS Kentucky of- fensive tackles E.J. Price and George Asafo-Adjei will be looking to keep Gross-Matos and Miller from disrupting their offense. It will not be easy. On the interior, C Drake Jackson, RG Logan Stenberg and All-America LG Bunchy Stallings will face a similar challenge from the Nittany Lions' defensive tackles. If Penn State's defensive line con- trols the line of scrimmage, Kentucky could have trouble to- taling 10 points. // EDGE KENTUCKY KENTUCKY PASS GAME 164.8 YPG, 7.0 YPC PENN STATE PASS DEFENSE 186.5 YPG, 10.5 YPC THE LOWDOWN The Wildcats' passing game ranks 13th in the SEC, but that's mostly be- cause they ran the ball 494 times during the regular season while passing only 281 times. Wilson has completed 67.6 percent of his attempts for 1,768 yards, with 11 touchdown passes and eight interceptions. Backup Gunnar Hoak has seen action in >ve games, with 13 completions in 26 attempts for 167 yards and two TDs. Wil- son's go-to receiver has been Bowden, a sophomore who has 62 catches for 661 yards and >ve TDs. TE C.J. Conrad is the Wildcats' No. 2 receiver with 29 catches for 297 yards and three TDs. Kentucky's other top wide receivers are David Bou- vier (15 catches, 205 yards, two TDs) and Dorian Baker (13 catches, 133 yards). In addition, the Wildcats will throw to Snell occasionally. The junior running back has 17 receptions for 105 yards. As a team, Kentucky has 14 TD passes on the season. In the Citrus Bowl, the Wildcats will be going up against the best pass defense that Penn State has >elded since James Franklin took over the program >ve years ago. The Nit- tany Lions rank second in the Big Ten, having allowed oppo- nents to complete only 53.4 percent of their attempts, with 13 interceptions. Penn State has allowed just 19 touchdown passes all year. Taylor, Scott and CB Amani Oruwariye lead the team with three interceptions apiece. CB John Reid has two interceptions, and linebackers Ellis Brooks and Johnson have one interception apiece. A big part of Penn State's success has been its pass rush. The Nittany Lions lead the Big Ten with KENTUCKY PASS GAME vs. PENN STATE PASS DEFENSE KENTUCKY RUN GAME vs. PENN STATE RUN DEFENSE W H E N K E N T U C K Y H A S T H E B A L L

• Cover