Wasson made his first start against Baylor in 2004 and nearly led the Bobcats to a win before Baylor won 21-17.
Last year the Bobcats also gave Texas A&M a battle before losing 44-31. However, Texas State had 493 yards of total offense in that game.
"It should be a heck of a game. We know how good Kentucky is," Texas State coach David Bailiff said. "Louisville is one of those next-level opponents. But Kentucky has good players. Their fans are going to be passionate."
Bailiff has had the UK fight song playing at practices this week to try and emulate the crowd noise his team must counter Saturday. "We won't be able to hear. We couldn't at Texas A&M last year. We've been working on our hand signals and snap count."
"They have played in enough big stadiums that they will not come in here and be intimidated," Brooks said.
Division 1-AA teams had success last week
Three Division I-AA teams - Montana State, Portland State and Richmond - beat Division I-A teams last week. And last year Division I-AA Idaho State lost just 41-29 at Kentucky. Idaho State had a 29-28 lead with 5 minutes, 6 seconds to play when UK's Rafael Little returned a kickoff 99 yards for the go-ahead score.
"Getting straightened out has to be a motivation to this team," Brooks said. "We've talked about the attitude of the team (that) these guys have demonstrated, and now it's time for it to show up. All we've got to do is go back and look at Idaho State and know we can't take anything for granted. They will be reminded of those things all week."
The players insist they understand that feeling.
"Texas State is better than Idaho State. That's enough said right there," UK offensive tackle Michael Aitcheson said. "We are looking at getting ready to play a good football team. We are totally disregarding that they are a Division I-AA team. They played well at Texas A&M last year. We know they can beat us if we don't play well."
Kentucky's offense basically consisted of two long passes to Keenan Burton and one to Dicky Lyons Jr. against Louisville. Burton also had a 100-yard kickoff return for a score.
The Wildcats managed just 23 yards rushing and never came close to getting running back Rafael Little loose against the Louisville defense.
"If you had told me 10 times last week that we would have 23 yards rushing, I would have told you that you were lying 10 times. I just have that kind of confidence in my team," Aitcheson said. "We just didn't take care of business. Now we have to get better."
Offensive line too stagnant
Aitcheson says the offensive line was "too stagnant" against Louisville.
"We should have come out with more energy. They just came out like a pack of wild dogs fighting for meat, and it took us a little while to catch up to their level of intensity. Just give credit where it is due. They took care of business and we didn't," Aitcheson said.
Brooks says just because Texas State is not a ranked opponent like Louisville doesn't guarantee his team will improve offensively.
"Defensively, they are pretty physical up front. We will be challenged to get some yardage on offense that we couldn't sustain against Louisville," the Kentucky coach said.
