8/1/2017 football Edit

What game are Kentucky's players most excited about on the 2017 schedule?

Justin Rowland • CatsIllustrated

Publisher

Justin Rowland has been CatsIllustrated.com's publisher since 2015. He covered college football recruiting at programs nationwide for 15 years prior to that.

CatsIllustrated.com had an opportunity to poll a large number of Kentucky football players on a range of topics, including one interesting question: What game are they most looking forward to on the 2017 schedule?

Here are some of their answers.

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Naasir Watkins (Justin Rowland/Cats Illustrated)

Wide receiver Isaiah Epps: “Really just looking forward to the first game. You know, we’re just trying to prepare for the first game this season.”

Wide receiver Josh Ali: “I’m just worried about the first game, Southern Miss, and we’ll see from there.”

Offensive lineman Naasir Watkins: “Southern Mississippi. First game on the schedule.”

Quarterback Walker Wood: “Every single game. Every game’s an opportunity and we’re just trying to go get W’s.”

Defensive end Chris Whittaker: “Right now I’m just focusing on Southern Miss right now. Our first game is the game we need to focus on the most.”

DE/Jack LB Josh Paschal: “The first game. Southern Miss. The second game I'm most looking forward to? The SEC Championship.”

Safety Darius West: “I get asked this question a lot. I’d have to say all of them.”

Linebacker Jamin Davis: “Honestly right now with everything that’s going on around us, we’re looking at every game the same, we’re just trying to win games this year so we can make that run to Atlanta.”

While a lot of players are pointing to the USM game as the one they're most excited about, they're clearly doing so for different reasons. It's easy to understand why Darius West, who has been injury prone, is just ready to get on the field and try to write a new chapter in college athletic career.

Bunchy Stallings also told CatsIllustrated.com that the Southern Miss game would be special, although in his case it has something to do with the fact that he grew up 45 minutes from Hattiesburg, Miss., and could have upwards of 100 family and friends at the game.

But the players didn't talk about the USM game as a revenge opportunity after losing to the Golden Eagles in Lexington last fall. We put that "revenge game" question to linebacker Josh Allen and he explained why that's not his thought process.

“I think about it as another way to get better for myself and for my teammates," Allen said of the USM game. "I don’t think about it as a revenge game because if you think about it as a revenge game you’re going to come at it too hard and you’re going to come in there too hard and once you mess up you’re going to get frustrated. I think about it as a game we’ve got to win. Just like any other game, it’s a game we’ve got to win.”

Two of the players CatsIllustrated.com put this question to went with answers other than USM or the more generic "all of them."

Running back A.J. Rose: “Definitely South Carolina at South Carolina. Just the environment. Watching it on TV when I was getting recruited. I just saw it and I loved it and I can’t wait to play in it.”

Wide receiver Clevan Thomas: “I look at every game as equal, but you know just because of where I’m from, Florida, you know. But every game is important to me. If I get to play I’ll play to the best of my ability.”