CJ Baxter set to return for Kentucky vs. Vanderbilt

Thursday night's SEC availability report came with a good update and a bad one for the Wildcats, and the good one is bigger.

Pete Nakos

@PeteNakos

Kentucky star RB CJ Baxter is off the SEC injury report and on track to play Saturday against Vanderbilt. Was a game-time decision last week against Oklahoma but was held out due to a hamstring injury. WR Nic Anderson has been ruled out. t.co/uQeMtxI2DS

Baxter had been a game-time decision last week. He dressed against Oklahoma and never got in, and Kentucky won 21-13 anyway, but you could tell he was missing. The Wildcats ran for just 72 yards without him. He showed up as probable on Wednesday's report for Vanderbilt and was gone from it entirely by Thursday. Will Stein had already hinted at it: "All indications are that he will be available, but we'll continue to look at it."

Here's why that matters. The Texas transfer has 484 yards and 8 touchdowns on 87 carries this season, plus 7 catches for 62 yards. He's got two 100-yard games, including a career-high 149 vs. South Alabama. The Kentucky run game goes through him, and last Saturday proved it.

Pete Thamel

@PeteThamel

Kentucky WR Nic Anderson is downgraded to out. No CJ Baxter on the report, which is good news for Kentucky.

The other half of the report hurts. Anderson was questionable earlier in the week and is now out. He played at Oklahoma and LSU before Kentucky, and he's third on the team in both catches (17) and receiving yards (197). Linebacker Sam Greene got moved from doubtful to out too, so the Wildcats are short on both sides of the ball.

The stakes are real. Kentucky is 6-1, No. 12 in the AP poll and tied for first in the SEC under first-year coach Stein, after being picked to finish 14th in the league before the season. Nobody saw this coming, and a trip-up against Vanderbilt is the kind of thing that ends a run like that before it gets going.

So the plan for Saturday looks simple. Give Baxter the ball, see how much that hamstring can take, and find someone to cover Anderson's targets. If Baxter gets back to his normal workload, the offense that managed 72 rushing yards last week should look very different.