Cats say Ole Miss game is must-win

Kentucky's football players said all the right things from a political correctness standpoint regarding Saturday's game at Ole Miss.

The two most popular answers floating around the Nutter Training Facility this week were: "The biggest game is always the next one," and "Every game in the SEC is huge."

But deep down, everybody knows how big the Ole Miss game really is.

For starters, if the Cats want to realize their dream of being a contender in what appears to be a wide-open SEC East, they have to take care of business in Oxford. They're fresh off a 48-14 loss at Florida, and an 0-2 start puts them in a hole that would be difficult to climb out of. When asked if his team could still fight for the division with two early losses, Kentucky Coach Joker Phillips said, "It would be tough."

And UK is about to hit the meaty part of its schedule. Ranked teams Auburn and South Carolina visit Commonwealth Stadium the next two weeks, and the last part of the pivotal three-game homestand will feature Georgia, which could be fighting just to preserve bowl eligibility.

Gino Munaron David Murray Luigi Musso Kazuki Nakajima