Biggest challenges in 2016: Slowing down Nick Mullens

Cats Illustrated takes a week-by-week look at Kentucky's biggest challenges in every game in 2016.

Starting with Southern Miss and going through the Louisville game, Kentucky will face plenty of hurdles in its quest for a postseason return.

First up: Southern Miss.

The Golden Eagles averaged nearly 40 points per game in 2015 and much of their success could be credited to the play of quarterback Nick Mullens, who was responsible for all but 10 of the program's pass attempts.

There's a reason Mullens was named the Preseason C-USA Offensive Player of the Year.

Mullens passed for 4,476 yards and 38 touchdowns while completing 63.5-percent of his passes.

He'll be changing systems with former Kentucky assistant Shannon Dawson heading the offense. While Dawson's offense sputtered at Kentucky, this time he inherits a prolific passing game with a proven quarterback.

The good news for Kentucky is the Cats' strength appears to be its secondary. The biggest question Kentucky will have to answer is whether they can generate enough of a pass rush to really bother Mullens.

Mullens was sacked 11 times in three games against Power Five foes last season (Washington, Nebraska, Mississippi State). But he passed for 447 yards against Nebraska, 353 against Washington and 311 against Mississippi State.

Mullens did toss a dozen interceptions to the opposition last season, but he also slung the ball around a lot and his 3-to-1 touchdown to interception ratio was still strong. Also, just two of his interceptions came against those Power Five foes.

If Kentucky is to defeat the Golden Eagles they may have to live with Mullens putting up some big numbers. But last year even big numbers weren't enough to defeat Power Five teams. They were competitive, mostly, in those games.

Slowing down the Southern Miss offense, last year, meant accounting for the running back in the passing game. Ito Smith hauled in 49 receptions and he returns in the backfield. So Kentucky's linebackers will have to play with good awareness in coverage tracking Smith near the line of scrimmage.

The Golden Eagles do lose Casey Martin and Michael Thomas, who combined for 151 receptions, 2,361 yards and 21 touchdowns last season. So one would have to assume that Chris Westry and Derrick Baity will match up even better with the USM receivers than they would have with last year's group. But USM will start three receivers who also combined for 99 receptions and more than 1,000 yards, so they had some depth at the position last year.

Kentucky knows well that if they put their corners in single coverage, Dawson will test the defense deep. That will present opportunities to get after the quarterback, and it will also give the Cats' long corners opportunities - but also the challenges of - playing the deep ball and creating turnovers.