Kentucky Football: What’s the Trap Game?

It’s a… well you know.

Football fiends at SEC blog Saturday Down South have already looked ahead at next year’s schedule.  And like any friendly neighbor would do, they’ve identified the spike pits, falling boulders, and hidden arrow holes each team faces going into the season.  Not literally, because those things would probably violate an NCAA rule somewhere, but metaphorically.

That’s right, they’ve spotted the trap games.

Or at least, they claim to have.  It’s hard to identify a trap game before the season even starts, because so much of it is about how the team is thinking and feeling the week leading up to the matchup.  If your team is coming off a huge win, and facing a weaker, less-lauded team, then that’s a trap game.  The pick for Kentucky this year, though, relies a little less on team momentum, and more on simply having a dangerous opponent.

There’s no momentum to consider, because I guarantee the Cats won’t lose the week before.  They won’t win, either.  Because there’s no “game before” the trap game–it’s the season opener.

Apparently, Western Kentucky is the most dangerous of the “should win” category.  I’m just relieved they’re in the “should win” category now.  But SDS highlights the pitfalls:

There’snot many trap games on Kentucky’s schedule. It’s not a knock against the program or Mark Stoops; it’s just the reality of the roster inherited. I look at Western Kentucky in the first week as a must-win game. It’s not necessarily a trap game, but it’s a must-win game. There are three games I point to — WKU, Miami (OH) and South Alabama — as games the Cats should win. There are three others they could win. The goal is a bowl game. And Bobby Petrino would want nothing more than to knock off an SEC team in his first game back.

The part about Bobby Petrino is a great point; he’s a solid coach that wants nothing more than to make a name for himself so he can get out of Bowling Green.  He didn’t tell me that, but I can guess.  It’s Bowling Green.

But is Western really the biggest trap game?  Remember, they beat us last year; you think the upper classmen have forgotten that?  Mark Stoops might not have been here, but Max Smith was.  He’s got four interceptions he wants to redeem.

Personally, I’m not sure that Alabama State, nestled between two winnable games against Mississippi State and Missouri, isn’t the biggest trap game.

Thoughts?