Will this be Derek Mason's last year as head coach of the Vanderbilt football program?

Mason has proven quite resilient even as rumors regarding his job security have surrounded him seemingly for years now.

The Commodores are next up in Cats Illustrated's series previewing Kentucky's 2020 opponents.

Recent Series History:

Apparent Strengths: This isn't going to be one of the SEC's better offensive lines but there's a chance for that group to be solid with plenty of older players and a couple with experience.

Dayo Odeyingbo has a chance to become one of the SEC East's better defensive linemen and that should be one of the team's stronger units. Inside 'backer Dimitri Moore could help make Vanderbilt okay against the inside run.

Apparent Weaknesses: Where to begin? Whether the quarterback is Ken Seals or Jeremy Moussa, Vandy will be green behind center. The Commodores lose KeShawn Vaughn, one of the SEC's top offensive players, at running back. He was often the only thing Vanderbilt could count on. Kalija Lipscomb is also gone at wide receiver, as is Jared Pinkney at tight end. Last year Vanderbilt's hope was to be explosive at the skill positions. Those players are no longer in Nashville.

The Vanderbilt secondary was not very good a year ago.

The reality is, on paper compared to the rest of the SEC there aren't a lot of reasons for realistic Vanderbilt fans to be very excited going into 2020. The Commodores were one of the nation's worst offensive and defensive teams last season.

Matchup Outlook: Towards the end of the Joker Phillips era the Commodores surpassed Kentucky by a fairly large margin in the SEC East's pecking order and the Wildcats didn't reclaim their place above VU in prestige until arguably 2016. Since that time, UK has won four consecutive games against Vandy. Two of those games (2016, 2018) were close and two have been blowouts.

It's tough to read too much into last year's game on Kentucky's end because the offense will be totally different but what was clear is that Wildcats had better personnel on both sides of the ball.

Kentucky now leads the overall series record 46-42-4.